A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 




866 



By FREDERICK A. BISBEE 





Class ZjL£6 

Copyright^? 

COPyRrGHT DEPOStn 



A California Pilgrimage 




COLONNADE OF THE PALACE OF ARTS 



A California Pilgrimage 



By 

Frederick A^Bisbee 

Author of "A Summer Flight" 




A Souvenir 

of the 

United Universalist Conventions 

California, 1915 



1915 

The Murray Press 

Boston 



/- <y(D6 



Copyright, 1915 
By Universalist Publishing House 



VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY 
BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK 

DEC 16 1915 

'CI.A418081 



iFfUnm ptlgrtma 




PALM IN PASADENA 



PREFACE 

The best of any journey we may take comes when we 
are home again thinking it over, and dreaming it over, 
and talking it over together, with something sympathetic 
and suggestive to jog our memories into activity. That 
is why these sketches and pictures have been gathered 
into this little souvenir volume. But there is still an- 
other* reason, perhaps even more important. There 
were only a few hundreds of us who went to California 
on this memorable Pilgrimage ; there were many thou- 
sands who wanted to go, but could not, and so wide- 
spread was, and is, the interest, that it is not only a 
pleasure but a duty to share, so far as is possible, the 
riches of our experience, and also to give some measure 
of permanency to what has proved to be one of the 
largest and most significant events in the history of the 
Universalist Church. 

The audacity of the proposition to take our Conven- 
tions to the Pacific Coast, at first shocked and then chal- 
lenged our people ; we were not accustomed to thinking 
in large figures, and to many it appeared a dangerous 
if not an impossible enterprise. The large sums of 
money necessary to transport a delegation of respectable 
numbers and meet the incidental expenses, seemed to 
threaten financial wreck. But the fears were ground- 
less. Through careful management the expenses of the 
executive boards of our foiir National Conventions did 



PREFACE 

not exceed the average of other years. More money was 
raised for missions than at former meetings of a like 
nature, the impulse given to missions will result in rec- 
ord-breaking contributions in the months to come, and 
the amount of missionary work actually performed in 
direct connection with the Pilgrimage marks the begin- 
ning of a new era of missionary achievement. 

The purpose of this record is to show the personal and 
social side rather than the routine of business, which 
has had its own publication, but it is well to say of this 
unique meeting of our Conventions: 

It was an adventure of faith, and a victory of faith. 

It was a triumph of co-operation. 

It was a revelation of our Church to ourselves, show- 
ing undreamed of capacities and resources. 

It was a prophecy of a brighter, a bigger and a better 
future. 

But after all, that which clings closest and is most 
enduring is the splendid spirit of fellowship and friend- 
ship developed through those memorable weeks together, 
when we, a group of Pilgrims, carried the message of our 
glorious faith from ocean to ocean. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Towards the Sunset 11 

II Crossing the Great Divide 16 

III Through the Desert to Paradise .... 27 

IV Meanderings and Musings in Fairyland . . 37 
V In Old Mission Days .47 

VI San Diego and Its Exposition Gem .... 53 

VII '-El Camino Real" 64 

VIII San Francisco the Phenix 74 

IX Exploring the Exposition • . 84 

X "Universalist Day" at the Exposition ... 96 

XI Facing Homeward 106 

XII The Journey I Did not Take . . . . . . 117 








THE YUCCA 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Colonnade of the Palace of Arts .... Frontispiece 

Palm in Pasadena vi 

The Yucca x 

Daily Ugcwumaypcuss 15 

Snapshots Along the Way " 19 

Plunging- into the Rockies — Seeing the Mormon Temple — 

A Car-load of PilgTims ..." 23 

Nevada Indian Wickiup 26 

Scenes in the Desert 29 

Universalist Churches in Riverside, Pasadena, Los Angeles 33 

Riot of Flowers .39 

Motoring in the Foothills 42 

Memorial to Father Throop and Dr. Conger .... 45 

Hotel Maryland Pergola 46 

"El Camino Real" — San Gabriel Mission — Santa Catalina 49 

A Pasadena Home . 52 

Picking Oranges 55 

California State Building at the San Diego Exposition . 58 

A Pacific Beach 65 

Court of Palms 73 

Seal Rocks — Fountain of Energy — Avenue of Palms .• 81 

They Call It a Tea House 83 

Palace of Horticulture • 85 

Court of the Universe 88 

Round About the Fair 91 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

California Building 94 

Court of Abundance ............ 98 

The Colonnade 105 

Three Mountains — Sir Donald, Mount Tainalpais, Mount 

Lowe 108 

Via Shasta Route to Canada 119 

Portland, Oregon, Church and Pastor 123 



A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 



CHAPTER I 

TOWARDS THE SUNSET 

''It can't be done!" But it was done. "It will be 
so hot!" But it was not. ''No one will go!" But 
three hundred did go. "It will surely fail!" But it 
did not. "We are not big enough to carry out such a 
great enterprise!" But we did take the largest excur- 
sion out of Boston, and the railroad men of Chicago 
announced that ours was the largest out of Chicago 
this season. 

All of which shows that, sometimes, we know more 
about things after they have happened than before! 
But mostly we do not learn this lesson until it is too 
late ! A good many who wanted to go did not make up 
their minds until it was too late, and to them the story 
of our journey into the sunset may be harrowing to 
their feelings, but in the interest of our denominational 
history we must write down the record which shows 
that the Universalist Church can do a great thing if it 
really wants to. 

"We are apt to balk at raising a few thousand dol- 
lars for the mission work of our cause, but when we 
really want something and are determined to have it, 
less than five hundred of us can, and actually have, 

11 



12 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

put up over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
tor the best time on record, and an inspiring session 
ot our Conventions as an incident. There are those 
who ask the old question which the Master answered 
centuries ago: ''Could not all this money have been 
given to missions?" The Master's answer is iust as 
good to-day! 

It has been a long and arduous task makino- ar- 
rangements for the tour, and to so adjust it that it 
would really serve our church. From the first the 
Committee has determined that this was to be no mere 
excursion. It would have been easy to gather a mis- 
cellaneous crowd, but we have insisted upon a personnel 
which IS identified with our own people. There have 
been hundreds of applications which have been rejected 
because the applicants were simply desiring to make use 
of our going to get something for themselves— those 
who wanted to use us as long as useful and then drop 
us. We succeeded in gathering Universalists and the 
intimate friends of Universalism ; we kept them together 
and landed the whole party at the Los Angeles Church for 
the first meeting, and on the third day, when this is being 
written, the members of the party are carrying out the 
program and we are holding a really great session. Be- 
tween sessions, and after the meetings are over, every op- 
portunity is being furnished so that the enjoyments of the 
tour are made possible for all. But we brought out Uni- 
versalists to attend our Conventions and they are doing it 
It was no small task to work out the multitude of details 
but with help from all, and with a fine spirit of self- 
sacrifice and willingness to make the best of everything, 
with a practical fellowship and co-operation on the part 
of all, we came into this wonderful land to find that our 



TOWARDS THE SUNSET 13 

gracious hosts had been doing equally great stunts, and 
had mastered their problem to the last detail, and their 
world" was ours. More must be said later of the splendid 
hospitality which has made these Conventions memorable. 

From an advertising standpoint,' this great enter- 
prise has been worth all it cost, for from the time when 
we entered the gate at the South Station in Boston which 
was marked by a big sign, ''UNIVERSALIST CONVEN- 
TIONS, ' ' until we landed safely in California the people 
knew that the Universalist Church was on the map ! In 
the East the law forbids signs upon the trains, but after 
we left Chicago a big sign, at night electrically lighted, 
glowingly lighted our way through thousands of miles of 
country, and in much of the new country this was supple- 
mented by the distribution of our literature, which was 
sown as seed along the way. 

About one hundred and fifty of the Pilgrims, rep- 
resenting every New England State, took the train in 
Boston, another group was added at Worcester, and 
still more at Springfield. Another car was attached at 
Albany containing the New York delegation. Utica, 
Syracuse and Rochester made their contributions, until 
over two hundred were on board. All these were in 
charge of three conductors from Thos. Cook & Son, and a 
genial representative from the New York Centra] system. 
We were cared for to the limit, and at the end of the first 
half of the pilgrimage, a vote of the members would be 
unanimous in commending the" management, which ex- 
tended to every detail. This is to be said in justice to 
Thcs. Cook & Son, that not only did they live up to their 
agreements in every particular, but were generous in 
making adaptations to fit every contingency, and we all 
owe a debt of gratitude to their representatives, who with 



14 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

infinite courtesy and patience took from onr shoulders 
the many petty cares of a long journey, and gave us free- 
dom to enjoy unrestrained the delights of the trip. 

And we did enjoy to the utmost. No accident and no 
illness, no unforseen event, marred the delightful com- 
panionship. About the dining tables we became ac- 
quainted, and within a few hours we were as one family. 
To each member the General Committee gave a beautiful 
badge and pin, the latter of sterling silver and enamel, 
showing the die of the ' ' United Universalist Conventions ' ' 
which has appeared in connection with all the advertising, 
and is sure to be preserved as a souvenir of real worth. 
Every one was introduced to every one else by the wear- 
ing of white disks, upon which appeared the name and 
address of the wearer. These were the "Who's Who" 
of the journey. 

The second day brought a pleasant surprise in the 
form of the first issue of the Daily TJgcwumaypcuss, a 
newspaper, which was edited and printed on the train 
by a group of the young people, assisted by a large 
corps of the ablest writers ! This daily paper was made 
possible by the generosity of one of the elder and most 
loyal and generous Universalists, who, being himself 
unable to go, contributed a traveling typewriter, to 
which was added a duplicating machine, by the use of 
which it was possible to issue every morning an edition 
of three hundred copies so that every ''subscriber" was 
supplied. That this enterprise was a success was shown 
by such a demand for extra copies ' ' to send to friends, ' ' 
as to put a premium on them. 



THE. 

Daily Ugcwumaypcuss 

A JOURNAL OF FACT FELLOWSHIP AND FRIVOLITY 



Sonday. Joly 4, 1915 



Enlcrtd as Flrsl Cla 




PUBLISHED BY 
THE GENERAL CONSENT PUBLISHING CO. Lfmited 



DAILY UGCWUMAYPCUSS 



CHAPTER II 

CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE 

At Chicago our train became too heavy to run as 
one section, and thereafter we drove tandem all the 
way through. But we were continually coming together 
at important stations for brief interchange of greet- 
ings, whenever the tail overtook the kite ! We parted 
company at Chicago in the early evening, after we had 
traipsed all over the village together, renewing our rela- 
tions when we awoke next morning, at Omaha, where 
we became the guests of the Union Pacific for a day and 
a night, and we were toured across the plains along the 
new but already famous Lincoln Highway. Of which 
we wish to remark in passing, that it is better to enjoy 
this highway from a Pullman sleeper running smoothly 
on the rails, than to attempt to exploit it, after a long 
season of heavy rains, in a Ford — or even in an auto- 
mobile ! 

There was a continuous procession of vehicles all 
headed for California, luit we can not conscientiously 
say, going there ! Some seemed to have become .fixed 
features of the landscape, and from the hubs up were 
visible to the naked eye. The upper works were covered 
with the impedimenta of the journey, and the sur- 
rounding rocks, when there were any, became pedestals 
on which were perched lugubrious statues of humans 
wrapped in dusters and waterproofs, having the time 

IG 



CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE 17 

of their lives! There is no doubt about it, for the 
most of them it was different from anything they had 
before experienced, and after all, most of our good times 
are simply different times. It is not a question of 
better or worse. We nearly kill ourselves to get rich, 
and then kill ourselves again to get back to the sim- 
plicity of poverty. People tear the world to pieces to 
get into society, only to move heaven and earth to get 
away from society and get a rest! Those people 
stranded on the plains of Nebraska or amid the bare 
mountains of Wyoming, getting a cold bite from the 
lunch basket, tearing their gloves and blistering their 
hands in really doing something, filling their lungs full 
of pure air, and bringing into play muscles they knew 
not they possessed, probably thought they were having 
hard luck, but you run across them a few months later, 
and they will tell their experience with a gusto which 
shows that down deep enough there is a bit of genuine 
human nature in the most artificial of us all. It is such 
a wretchedly small house-of-self we live in most of the 
time, and we think life is to fill our small shanty with 
good things; then comes along an experience and 
smashes the walls of our domicile, and we find ourselves 
out of doors in the big world and in the companionship 
of fellow human beings, and everything is magnified, 
and we are glad to live. 

Before we were half-way on our journey, we on the 
Special were getting acquainted and finding that there 
were other nice people beside ourselves on board, and 
it did not matter who were in the "uppers" or who were 
in the 'lowers," or even who were jn the *''dr's, " who 
had ''first sitting" or who had second, for we were all 
one family, multiplying our own pleasure by so many 



18 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

times as we made some one else glad. There is very 
little difference between a special train-load of folks 
and a world-load of folks! In fact, this world is just 
one of the Lord's "Specials" on a long: tour of the 
Universe, and is being specially conducted ! Mostly 
the passengers are contented and happy, but of course 
there are some who have not known how to live. They 
have not discovered the fallacy of our lowly friends 
the pigs, and so they are out to get all they can and 
give as little as they can, with the result that they never 
get out of their little pen, until they are fat enough to 
kill! Some time we are all going to discover that the 
real law of life is sacrifice; that we get only through 
giving; that no one can live alone unto himself without 
losing all he seeks for. 

The conductor of the Pullman train officially pro- 
nounced our party the best one he had ever conducted ; 
and we agreed with him ! We came very near realizing 
the ideal of community life, which means simply that 
we practised the religion we- were out to preach. And 
if we could do that all the time the kingdom of heaven 
would not be far away. But we had some preaching 
too. We had our special song books, "Songs Along the 
Way," and we had the fine portable organs, and we 
had some genuine singers, and regularly we had service 
in the cars, with addresses or sermonettes by some of 
our ministers who can only be heard ordinarily in the 
big pulpits of the big cities. But this was no ordinary 
occasion ! These services will long be remembered by 
those who enjoyed them so much ; they were really a 
benediction bringing us all closer together in real fel- 
lowship of the spirit. And there were other co-opera- 
tions beside those of worship, for at times troupes went 




SNAPSHOTS ALONG THE WAY 



20 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

through the cars singing glad songs, and entertainments 
of a varied character were given in which the versatil- 
ity of talent displayed made startling revelations of the 
wideness of the minister 's education ! 

The plains of Nebraska were a novelty to the New 
England farmers, accustomed as they are to two rocks 
to every bit of soil. The far-reaching acres of fertile 
land seemed to show the extravagance of Providence 
when free from puritanical restraint! All over these 
wide acres the inhabitants had thoughtfully decorated 
the scene with picturesque bunches of cattle and horses, 
until we began to doubt there being any excuse for the 
high cost of living. Through this land we had expected 
to get our first taste of the blistering heat which those 
who remained at home had promised us if we did so 
foolish a thing as to go into the West in the middle of 
the summer. But alas for their prophecies ! The 
weather was perfect, the frequent showers freshened the 
atmosphere and made clean and beautiful the entire 
landscape, there was absolutely no dust, and never was 
a journey made in more comfort. 

When we woke the third morning out, we were just 
beginning to climb the eastern slope of the Rockies, but 
so gradual is this slope it was hardly perceptible, and 
before we realized it we were over a mile above sea level, 
and were twisting and turning in and out among the 
little mountains on top of the great range, and finding 
new surprises and delights in every turn. It is a thing 
worth while to feel that you are actually on top of the 
earth and almost everything is beneath you, just enough 
left above to keep your aspirations alive and active. A 
little way beyond Cheyenne we were at the summit, but 
had it not been for the figures given on the time table 



CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE 21 

showing the altitude few would have realized how near 
they were to heaven ! But then that is a common ex- 
perience with us all, we never know when we are near- 
est success, or when heaven is nearest at hand. Mostly 
we are always going to be blessed, or going to be happy, 
and in looking for that which is to come, we overlook 
that which is at hand. On top of the Rockies we sense 
in some measure the bigness of this world and how 
few people there are on it. How many miles we drove 
along with never a house or a living thing in sight, 
and then we would dash through some city, or pause 
at some station, and the groups of people would catch 
sight of the sign on our train and begin to wonder ' ' who 
these Universalists were." And in one place where we 
paused for a few moments we overheard one native 
explaining to another that we were the ' ' Universal Film 
Company!" Such is fame! But it was revealed to 
us as we traveled that the fields for our missionary work 
are broad; we have not yet touched the edge of our 
mission. And here we began the sowing of our mission- 
ary literature. We thought we took great quantities, 
but really what we had was but as a drop in the ocean. 
If it ever happens that we go again into a new country, 
we must take with us not less than a carload, and then 
arrange to follow it up with more. We have not yet 
learned the alphabet of missionary extension, and that 
is the law of* our life, as it is the condition of the life 
of any church. We must grow or die. 

Throughout that great country, with its new and 
inquisitive and aspiring people, there are vast districts 
where there is no church of any sect, and vaster dis- 
tricts where they nevgr heard of an interpretation of 
Christianity which is sane and sweet and salutary and 



22 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

scientific and sensible, and here were we being hurtled 
through, with our hearts full of the greatest message 
the world has ever known, and had to offer but a few 
little leaflets! But we noted how, perhaps but from 
curiosity, old and young ran eagerly to pick up the 
message we threw down. 

In every one of these throbbing, thrilling cities of the 
wide West, that are growing so fast in material things, 
we should have at least a station for the distribution of 
our literature ; even more, we should have a church 
for the proclamation of the Gospel of the Universal 
Fatherhood of God and the Universal Brotherhood of 
Men, the one and only solvent of the great and press- 
ing problems of the age. And we can have all these, 
if we are willing to take our mission seriously, and not 
think of it simply as a means of more or less elegant 
support! The churches now established and the min- 
isters now being sustained must recognize that meas- 
urably they are all failing, no matter how large the 
congregation, how magnificent the edifice, how brilliant 
the preacher, — they are failing unless they are reaching 
out with their message to the most remote fields. 

AVe are profoundly impressed with the influence upon 
those who were on this journey, making them feel some- 
thing of the missionary spirit for the Universalist 
Church, and we are sure that some of this seed scat- 
tered along the way will take root and grow and bear 
fruit. Would that we could have scattered a thousand 
times as much ; would that we might have burned the 
name of the Universalist Church upon the very rocks 
of the mountains through which we passed, and left 
something of its beneficent spirit in the hearts of all 
whom we met! Some of this we did; we carried cheer 




PLUNGING INTO THE ROCKIES 

SEEING THE MORMON TEMPLE 

A CAR-LOAD OF PILGRIMS 



24 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

and hope and confidence to the scattered of our faith, 
we made many know of the Universalist Church w^io 
never knew of it before, and in the times to come, 
when they are seeking after a program of life, it may be 
they will turn again to it and find help. Of course 
we might have done more, but we rejoice that we have 
done what we have, that we faced a magnificent op- 
portunity and were not afraid. We have shown that we 
can do big things if we choose, and are more ready to 
attempt something worth while. 

It may be the big mountains, the bigger plains, the 
wide view, the larger sense of a new freedom ; it may 
be the spirit of the Golden and Glorious West is upon 
me, and that is why I am seeing things big for our 
Church ; but whatever it is, I welcome it and surrender 
myself to it. Never was the world's need of the Uni- 
versalist Faith and Universalist Church so great as to- 
day ; its theological work of the past was but child 's play 
compared to the stupendous practical service it can and 
should render to humanity in this hour. There are 
those who are timid and will shrink from the burden, 
there are those who are selfish and will pause to cal- 
culate as to how it will affect them personally, but there 
are others, true disciples of the Master, who are ready 
to go at his command. I believe there are enough of 
brave and consecrated souls ready to set the Universalist 
Church on its way to victory, the victory which will 
bring in the kingdom of heaven. 

It was noon when we arrived at Salt Lake City. For 
an hour we had been riding along in sight of the Great 
Salt Lake, the mystery of the West, and all longing 
for a chance to have a swim in water where we could 
not sink ! Then we came to the city itself, not upon the 



CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE 25 

shore of the lake, but in the chosen place where of old 
came the strange people who have made of it one of the 
great cities of the world, and doing it all by a certain 
phase of the dominant motive of the age, co-operation. 
Whatever we may think of the Mormon religion, and 
against much of it we instinctively revolt, we must 
recognize the far-reaching wisdom which planned on 
so large a scale the realization of so large a thought. 
It is a beautiful city for situation ; girt round by majes- 
tic mountains whose melting snows are commanded to 
supply most delicious water in great abundance, it is 
the throbbing heart of one of the most productive dis- 
tricts in the entire nation. On the face of things here 
is everything that man can demand, peace, prosperity 
and happiness ! But — there is a fly in the ointment ! 

We were taken to a beautiful, a magnificent hotel, 
which has been built by the church. We were feasted 
as we might have been at one of the great hostelries in 
the East; no difference could be seen. Then we sang 
our songs and had a prayer and went out to see the 
sights, in sight-seeing cars and automobiles. We saw 
the park in which we were to have had our service had 
time permitted, and we entered the tabernacle, where we 
were invited to join in a service, which we could not do. 
We ''did the town" in a most satisfactory way, and 
continued to wonder at the marvel of the thing. Here 
were the glorious results of co-operation, and yet never 
has there existed a more complete autocracy ! Great 
things can be done when vast sums of money are con- 
tributed to a common fund either voluntarily or on com- 
pulsion, providing there is a real head at the head and no 
one asks any questions! Mysterious and mighty organ- 
izations can and do accomplish marvels, but there must 



26 



A CALIFORNIA PILGRBLIGE 



be some other evidence of the worth of a religion than a 
bank account and government control 1 

And then it was evening and we were away on the 
last lap of our journey, across the Nevada deserts and 
over the Sierras to the realization of our dreams. South- 
ern California. 




NEVADA IXDIAX WICKILT 



CHAPTER III 

THROUGH THE DESERT TO PARADISE 

We were out in the real desert, and one of our min- 
isters — and a number of others — remarked: ''Did you 
ever see such a God-forsaken country?" And within 
a few hours the same minister was reading in the serv- 
ice, ' ' The earth is the Lord 's and the fullness thereof ! ' ' 
But, like many others, he picked out certain particular 
spots which happened to please his fancy, as the special 
possession of the Lord, and left us wondering as to the 
ownership of the desert! To my thinking the desert 
is an especially choice possession of the Lord, and it is 
easy to find Him there. To those who hustle through 
its wide reaches when the heat is intense, as it sometimes 
is, and the dust is penetrating and the glare of the light' 
is dazzling, and there is no green thing to rest the eye, 
and no living thing to divert the thought, there comes 
the instinctive thought of death, but the desert is not 
dead, it simply has not yet come into life. The desert is 
at the beginning of things; all the rest of the world is 
more or less far along the way towards death. The 
desert has not yet been born. It is potential with life. 
Touch it with the magic of water and presently it is 
transformed as by a miracle. Beneath that grey and at 
times almost ghastly face, there is wondrous beauty, 
beneath that insensible crust there is every form of 

27 



28 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

vegetable and mineral life, and but a little farther along 
the possibility of every phase of animal life up to the 
human — all unawakened, but waiting their time. When 
the proud cities of men, the productive mines and fruit- 
ful fields, have reached the end of thei^^^ resources, then 
will the desert be coming into its own ; touched by one 
of the fingers of God, it will blossom as the rose ; instead 
of the thorn there shall come up the myrtle. 

Only a few have seen the real desert in all its mag- 
nificent variety and its thrilling sensitiveness. It is 
not for those who travel in Pullmans, grinding its 
beauty and sentiment and vitality under the wheels, 
to know its mystery and majesty. jMen go and live 
in the desert, and after they have lived there a little 
while they come to love it, and can not be drawn away. 
And sometimes it is given to the passing guest to catch 
a glimpse of its sublimity, and ever after he treasures 
the memory. To know the desert one must see it at 
night, when the great stillness is over all — when, in an 
atmosphere so pure that it weaves no barriers to the eye, 
one looks across the long, long distances, such as are 
known nowhere else on the globe, rimmed with great 
shadowy mountains which are so mobile in the fingers 
of the moonlight that they are like dissolving views of 
houses and castles where romance has its birth, and 
where poetry dwells. There is no moonlight like that we 
see and feel in the desert ; there is no such starlight else- 
where on the whole earth. To be out alone beneath the 
stars, and see them, not stuck against the sky, but each 
one swung down on invisible cords until it hangs there 
in space, while the sky is farther beyond than the star 
is from the eye ! And the moon is a new luminary, not 
the old, dead planet glowing with reflected light, but a 





SCENES IN THE DESERT 



30 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

living thing dominating the biggest world we have ever 
seen, and setting the mountains to playing hide and seek 
with their own shadows. God-forsaken? Go out into 
that wonderful stillness, lie down with your face to the 
heavens, and look into such distance as you have never 
known, look as far as you can, and then look farther, for 
new worlds are opening beyond, sense the bigness of the 
earth, the smallness of yourself, possess a thought of 
the universe that will be yours for the first time, realize 
how far you are from the puny sounds of man and the 
sight of his tiny creations, then look upon the mighty 
worlds swinging from the fingers of God, listen till you 
catch a bit of. the harmony of a universe of order, and 
presently you will say, "Lo, God is here," and you will 
worship more truly than at any man-made altar. 

It was from my window in the sleeper that I looked 
out upon the moon-lit and star-lit night as the train 
rolled on with its treasures of human lives, mostly un- 
conscious of the marvels through which they were pass- 
ing, and I caught glimpses of God's dwelling place, but 
I saw more and farther through the windows of memory 
— other nights in the desert in which I had learned to 
love and reverence this Holy of Holies in the temple of 
our God. 

We were very fortunate in finding the desert in a 
most genial mood. "We had been warned against the 
dangers we were inviting, by choosing a route w^hich 
would carry us through "the dreary wastes" when the 
summer sun was high. And we did experience some 
excess of temperature, but not enough to make us any 
more uncomfortable than we are hundreds of times amid 
the hills of New England, for there we are stewed in a 



THROUGH THE DESERT TO PARADISE 31 

moist atmosphere, while through the desert, though the 
mercury runs high, the air is so dry there is little in- 
convenience if we keep in the shadow. And it was all 
so novel to most of us, so entirely different from any- 
thing we had ever seen, and while we strained our eyes 
to catch a sight of habitation, or evidence of the pres- 
ence of man, there was no sense of loneliness, for by this 
time we were indeed as a great family, each interested 
in each other, and each eager to contribute to the general 
good. 

The Daily Ugcwumaypcuss came out as usual on the 
last day of the journey, and there was regret that it was 
the last number, for it had been chief among the diver- 
sions, and we found that the copies were being treasured. 
There is no doubt that some time when the centennial of 
this pilgrimage is celebrated, this paper will be repro- 
duced in facsimile as a great curiosity. 

As the day lengthened we climbed over the Sierra 
Nevada IMountains, and twisted in and out among the 
spurs of the San Bernardino and the Sierra Madre, and 
were thrilled with the delight of real scenery. These 
mountains were not as high above the sea level as we had' 
been in crossing the Rockies, but they were more abrupt 
and of sharper outline, and really gave a sense of greater 
grandeur. Then there were the, to us, strange forms of 
vegetation, the weird cacti, and later all the slopes were 
lighted with yucca, which stood like gigantic candles 
against the background of browns and reds and bronzes 
and greys, of sand and rock. And in the late afternoon 
we swung down into the valley, where the orange and 
lemon trees, the figs and walnuts, began to appear, and 
though it was out of season, there was an occasional 



32 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

glimpse of the golden fruit of the orange nestling within 
the cool shadows of the dark green leaves. 

The first sight of an orange on the tree is an experi- 
ence only to be forgotten when the keener experience 
of picking the fruit has crowded it into obscurity. 
There are few fruits more picturesque than the orange ; 
it appeals not only to the palate, but to the imagina- 
tion. • It is so attractive that it makes one wonder some- 
times if it was not an orange rather than an apple which 
tempted our good old mother Eve ! Certainly it seems 
more plausible to suppose that the lady in question was 
a dweller in the more salubrious climate where the 
orange grow§, rather than in Maine or Michigan or 
Minnesota, where the apple reaches its perfection ! 
Anyway we saw the oranges of Southern California on 
the trees, and later we had the pleasure of actually pick- 
ing them ; and of the eating — it is better that the records 
be erased ! 

We had made our j^lans to arrive in Riverside in 
time to hold an informal reception and have a brief 
service in our beautiful church, and we did, but not 
exactly according to program. There was a hot box on 
the first division of our train, and through its unde- 
sirable assistance we were able to see more of certain 
portions of the country than we wished, and at last, 
when we had reached a convenient siding, the second 
section went past us, the passengers cheering us with de- 
risive messages and otherwise displaying their ghoulish 
glee at our discomfiture, and then speeding on to eat 
oranges and drink innocent punch and enjoy the 
speeches of welcome specially prepared for us ! But 
we got there all the same, and though we were late, the 
welcome and the punch held out. 




UNIVERSALIST CHURCHES IN 
RIVERSIDE, PASADENA, LOS ANGELES 



34 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

California would not be California without River- 
side. The place is quite unique. The Easterner has 
come to think of oranges and Magnolia Avenue and 
the Mission Inn and dreamy days and dreamless nights 
and life ideal whenever Riverside is mentioned. It is 
all true; and the half has not been told. But when 
the other half is told we shall learn something about 
the condition on which alone we can enter this earthly 
heaven! There were no conditions upon us save those 
fixed by time, but then, better one hour of Riverside 
than a lifetime in Sing Sing, or ev^n sixty minutes in 
Boston! One of the features of Riverside is our own 
beautiful church, round which cluster memories of 
sacred lives who carried our faith to the Pacific Coast, 
and recollections of one of our successful missionary 
endeavors, when by the united efforts of all of our peo- 
ple from nearly every state, we builded something worth 
while. When we came to the church we found it decked 
with flowers, and our pastor, Mrs. Irwin, with some of 
the friends receiving. There were speeches by the 
pastor and Mr. Carrier, a former pastor, with responses 
from- the happy Pilgrims, and then, in our own way, 
each one decorated with a big orange, which was /'felt," 
we saw as much of the sights as we could and were away 
again to our goal at Pasadena. Only a couple of hours 
by schedule, but there were some delays, and so it was 
nearly midnight when at last we were all asleep in the 
charming and restful Maryland Hotel. 

At Riverside members of the local committee from 
Pasadena met us, and from that moment we cast upon 
them all our cares, and we realized that we were in the 
land of perpetual sunshine. This matter of hospitality 



THROUGH THE DESERT TO PARADISE 35 

has much, if not most, to do with making life worth 
living anywhere and any time, for there is no time or 
place when we must not entertain or be entertained, and 
the secret of it all is not so much the bounty as the 
beauty, not so much the generosity as the grace with 
which we serve or accept service. Whosoever goes forth 
to get as much or more than some one else, or to envy 
another's getting, will lose all. Whoso gives hospitality 
which is perfunctory and ungracious knows not its joys 
and gives not its blessings. Out of our faith grows 
naturally the truest hospitality, and it has beeji exempli- 
fied along the way of our pilgrimage. 

It occurs to me that somewhere between sketches, I 
have dropped out the mentioning of our reception in 
Chicago. It has not gone from my memory, but I shoot 
these epistolary arrows into the air, and I have no 
means of knowing when or where they light. I try to 
keep the connection by way of linking notes, but some- 
where between Pasadena and San Francisco my notes 
were lost, and therefore I am liable to all sorts of omis- 
sions or repetitions, as it will be several weeks still be- 
fore I can know what I have written! However, the 
though tfulness of St. Paul's Church in inviting us to 
luncheon recalled the former experience when we were 
on our way to the Convention in Minneapolis and we 
broke our journey in companionship with our Chicago 
friends. It was in accord with the thought of the whole 
enterprise, that we of the East should get into touch 
not only with the fellows of like faith on the Pacific 
Coast, but all along the way, and it was good to receive 
the cordial greetings of the pastor. Dr. Brigham, 'and 
the hearty words of Messrs. Hutchinson, Stevens and 



36 



A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 



Holly Some time we are going to be a real Church, so 

.?r .r ™o """^^ ^'^^ ^'^^''^ ^"1 be no East, no w;st, 
no North no South, but something of the spirit of on; 
name wil take possession of us and we shall be "Uni- 
versahsts" and live up to it. 



CHAPTER IV 

MEANDERINGS AND MUSINGS IN FAIRYLAND 

A week in Pasadena and Los Angeles is sufficient to 
justify a large expenditure of money and time. Aside 
from the sessions of our Conventions, things were hap- 
pening nearly every hour of the day, and most of the 
hours of the night! Between sessions and during the 
time allotted to sight-seeing we had but to follow the 
plans of the local committee to cover pretty well, with 
the commonplace equipment of earth, the whole area 
of this modern fairyland. But we were impressed with 
the difficulty of giving instructions so they would lodge 
in the consciousness of those seeking. A large bulletin 
board was placed in front of the church which every 
one must pass in going in or out, repeated notices were 
given from the desk, and yet some would persistently 
lose their way. But there is this advantage in losing 
one's way in Pasadena; if you miss the place you are 
going to you are sure to find something better where you 
arrive ! It was a bit disconcerting to feel the attraction 
of Mount Lowe pulling us towards heaven and Santa 
Catalina pulling us the other way ! But there was the 
compromise on San Gabriel. All together we were able 
to see everything, but so much was seen vicariously that 
the only complete story must be a composite which no 
one can tell. 

In Los Angeles we were first introduced to a common 

37 



38 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

experience of the "get fed quick system" locally known 
as the "cafeteria." This system, which originated 
somewhere on the earth — or below — like everything else 
which is transplanted to California, has grown to mam- 
moth proportions, and takes root in cuxious and most un- 
expected places. The one to which we were first intro- 
duced was in the Trinity Methodist Church, together 
with a moving picture show and stores of various kinds. 
To be explicit, the Methodist Church has built itself into 
a great city block surrounded by all sorts of business 
from which it derives the income to meet its expenses, 
and the lower story is devoted to the ' ' cafeteria, ' ' where 
we entered in single file, eventually reaching a counter 
where each one helps himself to a large tray, a napkin, 
knife and fork and spoon, then, sliding this tray along 
a track past all forms of eatables, he selects such as ap- 
peal to him, and at the end of the counter his collection 
is checked up ; he then bears his loot to a table, satisfies 
his appetite, and then, if he has the price, he can get 
out through another opening — in time to start over 
again for the next meal ! I can not say I approve of 
the system! It is too mechanical; it destroys all the 
poetry of eating. One has the feeling of being fed with 
the other animals, and the. undeveloped possibilities are 
appalling, for in the not distant future I can see the 
downtrodden public not only being required to select 
its own food, but being compelled to cook it, or even to 
catch the chicken on the hoof ! 

There are the great sights to see — looking down from 
Mount Lowe across the crags and chasms and the foot 
hills to the wide levels checker-boarded with orange and 
olive, apricot and walnut, to the beautiful cities, then 
on and on to w^here the Pacific weds the sky on the 



40 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

horizon; then there are the marvels below the sea, as 
we sit in the glass-bottomed boat in the crescent harbor 
at Santa Catalina, and look down into the depths on 
scenes unparalleled off the spectacular stage, where 
colors are all a riot, and forms violate all rules of art 
to create a new art. There is nothing to which the 
scenery below the water can be compared, it is so en- 
tirely unique. The water is as clear as the air, and in 
a depth of fifty feet everything is as clearly seen as 
horizontally across fifty feet of distance. There are 
mountains and plains, forests and sandy wastes, and 
through all these sport all kinds of fish, many of them 
most brilliantly colored, and of freakish shape, until 
we lift our eyes to the familiar world with a feeling that 
we have just passed through a nightmare. Then we can 
wander or ride over the mountains of this lonely island 
out in the midst of the Pacific, and strain our eyes to 
the westward where, with the imagination to extend 
our vision, we can look into the very heart of Japan. 
For those who love fishing Catalina is a paradise, for 
not only are there many fish, but they are the gamey 
type which seem to enjoy the sport as much as the fel- 
low at the other end of the line ! A large party of our 
people made the one day trip to the island, returning 
sun-burned and happy, from a country more distant 
really than those across the ocean, for if is one more 
different, and after all it is difference which makes dis- 
tance rather than the measured miles. 

But it is the little things and the common things that 
are best, and after we have seen and seen until our eyes 
are weary, it is restful to sit in a comfortable machine, 
when the day is near its ending, and just be driven about 
the wonder-city of Pasadena, and see the perfection to 



MEANDERINGS AND MUSINGS 41 

which the building of homes can be brought, and note 
how like jewels of finest grade they are fittingly set in 
the most beautiful surroundings of lawns and flowers 
and trees such as seem to grow nowhere else, and one 
realizes something of the luxury of life and living. Yet 
who may tell the mysteries shut behind the carved doors ? 
And who wants to, even if he could? There is so little 
difference between the life in one sort of a homestead 
and another when we count it in essentials — enough to 
eat, enough to ,wear, just enough of comfort and content, 
and love, and it does not matter what the walls of the 
house are made of, or what the surroundings. All pos- 
sessions mean care, and more possessions mean more 
care. There is the struggle of many to get a living out 
of a dollar, and squeeze a bit of happiness with it, but 
the struggle is no harder than that which is made by 
another to get a living and a bit of happiness out of a 
thousand dollars; it all depends on the habits we have 
formed. And there is happiness in the big houses too, 
no less than in the little ones, and no more, either ! But 
those magnificent estates bordering either side of the 
wide avenues are beautiful to look upon, and the beauty 
belongs to all, and all can enjoy, while one pays the 
bills ! Sometimes I have wondered how much satisfac- 
tion the owner of the big house would get were there 
none to look at it save himself ! When the big house is 
builded and given its setting, then, save others come to 
see, the building is in vain. The most dependent people 
in the world are those who have much, for they must 
wait on those who have opportunity to give. The bird, 
if it thinks at all, must sometime think of gratitude to 
the thoughtful men who have spent years and millions in 
stringing telegraph wires all over this round world, for 




MOTORING IN THE FOOTHILLS 



MEANDERINGS AND MUSINGS 43 

the birds to roost on — so thinks the bird ! And in some- 
thing the same way we are all tangled up together with 
the things we must all be thankful for, and it does not 
matter in the least whether we are big or little, each is 
equally indebted to the other. I am more than grateful 
for the beauty and the joy and the satisfaction and the 
supreme glory of the wonder-city, but my gratitude 
reaches the maximum when I think I do not have to 
carry the responsibility of possession! 

But the ride in the twilight was beyond the region of 
houses, out among the foot-hills from which we could 
look up to the higher mountains that were warming in 
the light of the setting sun. Evei-y line was toned to 
harmony, and they seemed so kindly in spirit, taking 
into their great comforting arms the last rays of light to 
nurse to sleep in darkness ! And then, with the dark- 
ness shielding us, but not without permit, we drove into 
orchards of apricots and oranges, and lifting our arms 
we gathered to ourselves the abundance which would be 
wildly extravagant in the East, but here would not be 
missed ! As the child longing for a candy house that he 
might eat his way in and out, behold we were in a house 
of fruit and had but to eat open the doors ! And we did 
— after a while ! 

Our church in Pasadena has been a conspicuous land- 
mark on the Pacific Coast for many years, and its arms 
of influence have reached out in many directions with 
-hands full of sustaining strength and encouragement to 
others. Our whole cause in Southern California has 
centered around this church, which is itself a constant 
inspiration in the story of its origin and life. The Pasa- 
dena Church illustrates what a big-hearted and loyal 
layman can do in the extension of the faith which has 



44 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

come to be a part of his own life. Father Throop when 
he came to California brought his Universalism with 
him; he had found it good to live with and good to live 
by, so when he migrated to a new place he not only 
brought with him a supply for his own use, but enough 
to divide with his neighbors. His was the vision of a 
great Church in the rapidly developing land to which he 
had come ; he saw in anticipation the Southern Cali- 
fornia of to-day, and he felt the need of the Universalist 
Faith in the unfolding, and therefore he with the help 
of ministers of like vision established our cause. And it 
was most fitting that our Convention should recognize, 
on this its first visit to the Coast, with appropriate cere- 
monies the two heroic names of Throop and Conger, 
which are to stand in high places upon the roll of honor 
in our history. 

These men had the true idea of missionary work ; they 
built for the future, they built with faith, they knew the 
principles of our Faith were essential to the develop- 
ment of the best civilization, and they made their con- 
tribution to the community welfare. They were wise 
enough to establish a distinctive church. There was a 
reason for the existence of the Universalist Church: it 
supplied something no other church supplied; the world 
could not get along without it. The church they built 
did not sprawl all over the lot, being everything to every- 
body, it stood for something, and they stood up in self- 
respect and compelled the respect of everybody. We 
have something to learn from these fathers of ours. 
They were not bigoted, but they were distinctive ; with 
the broadest spirit and the widest liberality they stood 
up in their own shoes and were honored in their day 
and generation, and their honor abides. 



MEANDERINGS AND MUSINGS 45 

Now we have a new Universalist church in Los An- 
geles. Its existence is largely due to the practical sym- 
pathy of the Pasadena church and other churches and 
people throughout the land who have swung into line un- 
der the masterful leadership of Dr. Nash and his fore- 
runner and faithful helper, Dr. Canfield. And this new 
church will succeed just in proportion to its distinctive 
reason for success. It will stand to-day for that true 
liberality which loses itself in service without sacrificing 
its own character. There is nothing bigger in the re- 




MEMORIAL TO FATHER THROOP AND DR. CONGER 

ligious world than Universalism, it has room for all 
truth and inspires to all service, but if it is to hold 
anything and render any service, it must have some- 
thing to hold it in and something with which to serve. 
The opportunity has come to the Universalist 
Churches on the Pacific Coast at this time, when the 
religious lines are unfixed and religious thought is 
ranging wide in search of the truth, to say to the world, 
in the language of our real leader of to-day, ''Here is 
the best thing in sight," to say to the whole world, ''Be- 



46 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIIMAGE 

hold, we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall 
be to all people," our unique message. We rejoice in 
the fine record of our churches at Riverside and Santa 
Paula, but we must look upon them not simply as results 
of missionary endeavor, but as beginnings only of the 
larger life there is yet to be. The time has come for our 
Church to grow, and there is no better place than on the 
Pacific Coast. We look to our Pasadena church to re- 
sume its leadership to larger things; we look to the 
present hour as crucial, and with faith and confidence 
we await its call of its new leader. 




HOTEL MARYLAND PERGOLA 



CHAPTER V 

IN OLD MISSION DAYS 

The Convention work was over with the adjournment 
of the business session at noon on Saturday. There re- 
mained but the banquet in the evening, which lured like 
a climax to our joys, the dedication of the Los Angeles 
Church on Sunday morning, the climax of missionary 
endeavor, and the Mass IMeeting at Pasadena in the 
evening, the climax of inspiration, then the sight-seeing, 
when Southern California was to be our own until such 
time as we resumed our flight to San Francisco and the 
whole boundless West. But meanwhile there was the 
afternoon made ever memorable by a visit to the won- 
derful Mission Play at the San Gabriel IMission. 

We went in a body — and also in the spirit — to witness 
the enacting before our eyes of the early history of Cali-' 
fornia, when it was indeed a foreign land. Two special 
trains took out nearly four hundred of our people, 
through the foot-hills to the place where generations ago 
the Spanish fathers made their way up the coast from 
Mexico, and established the San Gabriel Mission, 
through which they were later to possess the land and 
the Indian inhabitants thereof, and form one of the 
chain of Missions extending all along the Pacific Coast. 
It was a form of peaceful invasion quite different from 
that in vogue to-day, and while there is no question but 
that if history were written with the pen of exact truth, 

47 



48 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

the career of these missions would reveal many stories 
of cruelty and bloodshed, yet this first crude step to- 
wards civilization was a necessary step, though we may 
wish it had been less harsh than it was. There are no 
traditions here of such wholesale brutality as that of 
Cortez, who gloried in his "religious" work, when he 
drove together thousands of the Indians in ]\Iexico and 
gave them their choice of being converted or burned at 
the stake ! But without question all kinds of pressure 
was brought to bear upon the simple natives, not only to 
be baptized, but to make generous contributions, and 
eventually, under direction of the fathers, to build the 
places of worship which the years have but ripened in 
their beauty, and established as the enduring monu- 
ments of that early period of romance in the making of 
America. 

The Spanish architecture of that early time fixed it- 
self upon our Southwest as the Colonial fixed itself upon 
the Northeast. Each has endured, partly because of 
the artistic sense, and partly because of fitness to climate 
and conditions. The passing of time has greatly refimed 
both, sometimes to the point of elimination, but as there 
remain old Colonial houses in New • England strict 
enough to type to preserve the standards, so these old 
Missions stand as permanent models after which a great 
deal of the building of California is shaped. And this 
inheritance has given this corner of our country an 
artistic touch which makes winning appeal to any one 
with a bit of sentiment and imagination. 

But we were out to see the past reincarnated, not 
simply to look at and in and over the beautiful old Mis- 
sion building, not simply to people the spaces with 
imaginative figures, but to see the real men and women 




"EL CAMINO REAL" 

SAN GABRIEL MISSION 

SANTA CATALINA 



50 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

of the ancient time walking and speaking, loving and 
hating, intriguing and aspiring, just as" we do to-day, 
only in strange aceouterments and with curious speech. 

A great amphitheater has been built right in the 
shadow of the old Mission, and in this building, which 
seats several thousand people, and on an immense stage, 
the play is enacted which shows the three great steps .of 
progress, from ''The Savage Sensing the Approach of 
His White Conquerors," past "The Faded Military 
Glory of the Spanish Conquest," to "The Consumma- 
tion of the Ever-living Faith in the Cross of Christ." 

We entered the enclosure and were directed to follow 
El Camino Real, the King's Highway, which has been 
created about the" huge building, showing in facsimile 
the series of Missions which, following the first estab- 
lished at San Diego in 1769, were placed at intervals of 
forty miles along the coast, which became centers of 
religious and military influence and control. As we 
passed along the highway we had a chance to really 
study the different Mission buildings as they are to-day 
in a more or less perfect state of preservation. For 
those old padres knew how to build for endurance, and 
it is doubtful if anywhere in America the earliest types 
of buildings are so well preserved, and many of them 
date back nearly one hundred and fifty years. Grouped 
together as these Missions are with their geographical 
setting reproduced, though in miniature, an opportunity 
was afforded to get, within half an hour, a knowledge 
of California Missions which could not otherwise be 
secured in months of travel. 

And then we entered the auditorium, which was dim 
with a scarce twilight light, and there discovered that 
the way to see the outside Missions in true perspective 



IN OLD MISSION DAYS 51 

and coloring was through the open windows, and every 
spare moment between the acts of the play was occupied 
in feasting the eyes upon most realistic pictures; while 
we were the guests of San Gabriel Mission, we were pre- 
sented with all the others. 

To tell the story of the play which has been based on 
the wonderful book by John Stephen McGroarty, ''Cali- 
fornia, Its History and Romance," adapted by the 
author himself, would take too long. But beginning 
with the scene at San Diego when the expedition from 
Mexico has reached a period of starvation and probable 
extinction, the retreat is held back by the faith of Fray 
Junipero Serra, who pleads for one more day's delay, 
being sure that help will arrive, and when the day is 
granted he goes to the hill-top to pray, and all day long 
he is at his devotions, while the others are preparing to 
depart, and then, in the last minute of the last hour, the 
miracle is performed, and up out of the sea, seemingly, 
rises the relief ship, and California is saved. Then fol- 
low the other leading incidents, all set with fidelity, and 
each dramatic situation unfolding itself before us. It 
was a wonderful piece of work and marvelously well 
done, and gave in a couple of hours, to the thousands 
who saw and heard, more of the history of the state than 
could have been secured through years of study in the 
conventional school. 

Many asked me how it compared with the Passion 
Play at Oberammergau ; but they are not comparable. 
The Passion Play is a product of three hundred years 
of growth and training, this Mission Play is as a mush- 
room beside it. The former is on a vaster scale and is 
set in the open, while this is enclosed. The former 
appeals with peculiar power to the religious sensibilities, 



52 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

the latter, while also Roman Catholic, and clustering 
about the church, is more historic and romantic. But it 
is good to have seen both, for after all the e^-e is the 
widest open door to the soul, and these mighty events in 
the unfolding of our destiny as individuals and peoples, 
entering thus, possess us in giving us a new possession 
of them. 

Out of this afternoon amid the earlier years of Cali- 
fornia history, there comes to me the suggestion that a 
supreme opportunity awaits our own Church at its 
birthplace. To reproduce the "miracle" of Father 
Junipero Serra is deemed worth the great expenditure 
of time and effort and money ; why should not we of the 
Universalist Church produce the not less miraculous 
incident of the landing of John ]\Iurray and his greeting 
by Thomas Potter and the birth of the Universalist 
Church, on the very scene of its enacting at Good Luck, 
N. J.? The year 1920 will be the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the landing of Murray ; why may 
we not have the entire event reproduced in a pageant of 
such splendor as to attract the attention and attendance 
of multitudes? Think this over. 




A I'ASADL.X \ HOME 



CHAPTER VI 

SAN DIEGO AND ITS EXPOSITION GEM 

To touch the details of the "After Convention Pro- 
gram," as the period of pleasure was called, would 
require that this series of sketches be extended, if not 
beyond the ability of the writer, certainly beyond the 
patience of the reader, and therefore, assuming that 
every hour was filled with interesting incident which 
was not filled with rest, a very few of the greater fea- 
tures are to be touched upon. 

The visit to the San Diego Exposition was an after- 
thought. When the program of our days was completed 
it was found that we could have a day at the Little 
Exposition, and from all reports such a day was not to 
be missed without exceeding loss on our part. Further- 
more, the management of the Exposition, eager for our 
attendance, set apart Tuesday, July 13, as ' ' Universalist 
Day." Of necessity we must be there, and we were. 

There is this to be said about any party on a tour, 
that if it is well managed and no one changes his mind 
and wants something different, there will never be any 
trouble. But mostly we like to change our minds and 
make new plans, and then it is hard for us to understand 
why it is* that engagements at hotels and in sleepers can 
not be broken in America as easily as scraps of paper 
are in Europe. Thos. Cook & Son proved themselves 
most satisfactory managers, and in a wide canvass of 

53 



54 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

our members since the return we have had but votes of 
commendation. The management even went beyond 
the fixed requirements of the tour, and so far as was 
possible adapted the arrangements to the desires of their 
guests. This San Diego trip was not included at first, 
but when a vote by mail was taken indicating that about 
two hundred wanted to go, hotel reservations were 
shifted to sleeper reservations, and we were enabled to 
surrender our beautiful rooms at the Maryland on ]\Ion- 
day night and take the midnight special to San Diego, 
where we arrived in the early morning. 

The Universalist pastor of the Unitarian Church in 
San Diego, the Rev. H. B. Bard, had been working all 
the week with our people to get them to go, and he 
arranged that the morning was to be spent on a tour at 
Point Loma, the home of the theosophical cult of which 
Madam Katharine Tingley is the high priestess, not only 
to see the fine buildings and grounds of this society, but 
more, to take a voyage out into the Pacific on a sight- 
seeing automobile ! For Point Loma is a long arm of 
land projecting out into the ocean and forming one 
boundary of the wonderful San Diego harbor, one of the 
finest in the world. From the hotel the route was 
through the business section of the city and then the 
outskirts, where we saw the strange, to us from the East, 
but frequently beautiful homes of those who abide in 
this semi-tropical land. It is about eight miles around 
the head of the bay, and as we swung across towards 
our goal, the highland of Point Loma, we got moving 
pictures of the city and the harbor, over which several 
aeroplanes were flitting, and across the straight line of 
our vision over the water, we could see the moving 
target, drawn by a motor boat, upon which the guns 



SAN DIEGO AND ITS EXPOSITION GEM 55 

from the fort were practising, the projectiles throwing 
up fountains of spray as they plunged into the waves. 

Good roads wind in and out among the small hills on 
the Point, and we alternately were looking down upon 




the Pacific Ocean on our right and the bay and harbor 
and city on our left, until, beside the old Spanish light- 
house of unnumbered years, we alighted to wander to 
the brink of the cliffs and look away upon one of the 
fairest scenes in all America. There are few cities more 



56 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

fortunate or more beautiful for situation than San Diego 
as viewed from the extreme of Point Loma. Right be- 
neath us is the narrow entrance to the harbor, which is 
completed by another long point, this time of sand, ex- 
tending from farther down the coast out to almost meet 
the one on which we were standing, and back of this is 
the great harbor, perfectly protected and large enough 
to float all the navies of the world — certainly what will 
be left of them when the submarines finish their work! 
Beyond the city are the plains, once a desert, now luxur- 
iant with fruit and grain harvests, and yet farther on, 
clothed in the thinnest veil of mist, the San Bernardino 
mountains. To the right there is the Pacific in all its 
majesty of greatness, for there is nothing to interrupt 
the view until it reaches the end of our world, where sea 
and sky blend in an indefinable line. Sometimes it is 
said that there are islands to be seen far away, but for 
us there was nothing to break the flight of the imagina- 
tion, or to mar the picture of vastness which we were to 
carry back to the Atlantic coast. 

We drove back through the beautiful grounds of the 
Society, and were privileged to be guided by members, 
young men students, to, though not into, the buildings, 
and into the upper seats of the gem of the collection, 
the Greek Theater, where we questioned the young man 
about the history and purpose of the society, and got 
very direct but hardly illuminating answers. Perhaps 
it is the mystic atmosphere of the place which took pos- 
session of us and stole away our senses, but two things 
impressed themselves upon me : 

First, that the whole thing was alniormal, and second, 
that the abnormal, under skillful management, is about 
the best paying article on the market! Fourteen years 



SAN DIEGO AND. ITS EXPOSITION GEM 57 

ago Madam Tingley, a disciple of Blavatsky in theoso- 
phy, took up this point of land, then but a waste of rock 
and sand and sage brush, and gathered about her a 
group of people, many of them of superior intelligence, 
many of them with money, and she has transformed the 
desert into a garden, and set in.it buildings of striking 
architecture and decorated within — judging from the 
one we were, permitted to look into, though a rope kept 
our profane feet from the tessellated pavement — with 
an adaptation of Egyptian figures and mystic symbols. 
There is a school for training young children, where it 
is assumed that the last person to be entrusted with a 
child is its own mother, and a college for those of 
larger growth, where the teaching is all voluntary, and 
■yet it costs a thousand dollars to secure admittance. 
Now of course this is all very superficial and probably 
unfair, but the point is that any strange, and especially 
freakish, thing if clothed in mystery, and possessed of a 
leader with the distinct note of authority, can command 
the money to accomplish marvels. We are glad to have 
the marvels to look upon, and we enjoy the good roads, 
and the beautiful flowers, but some of us are so consti- 
tuted that we can not enjoy that degree of self -surrender 
to another and retain our self-respect, which is of more 
value than many temples. 

The shores of Point Loma on the Pacific side are 
inexhaustibly picturesque, composed of a soft rock which 
the tireless sea through the ages has carved into weird 
forms which lift their heads like gnomes above the waves, 
and scooped out recesses and caves which tempt the ob- 
server's imagination to people them with old Spanish 
pirates. But instead the American business man has 
taken possession, and outside of the grounds of the Theo- 




CALIFORNIA STATE BUILDING AT THE SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION 



SAN DIEGO AND ITS EXPOSITION GEM 59 

sophical Society, the baseball king, A. G. Spaulding of 
Chicago, is developing a great tract into a future play- 
ground for the nation. And what Mr. Spaulding is 
doing for that small section, Mr. Spreckels is doing for 
the whole city of San Diego, until it seems, on a super- 
ficial view, that here is being created a heaven for those 
who have nothing to do, and have money enough to in- 
dulge themselves in idleness and receptivity ! There is 
another view of San Diego, which is the real view, and 
the Board of Trade will be glad to tell you all about it, 
in which we see the development of the ideal of the little 
farm well tilled, and the little home of large content. 
San Diego quite made us captive by its charms of climate 
and scenery and products and people, and if Brother 
Bard will just listen for the call of the Lord to some 
other promising field, we prophesy there will be a pro- 
cession of candidates hitting the trail for the jewel city 
of America ! 

But the Exposition is the thing ! And right at the 
start, I want to say that the difference between the San 
Diego Exposition and the others is just the difference 
between a strawberry and a watermelon ! Both are 
good, but while there is more of the watermelon, — it is 
not a strawberry. People have been wondering why 
San Diego had an Exposition at the same time that San 
Francisco made its appeal to the world, and the answer 
is that San Diego did not ; she had hers before San Fran- 
cisco, and she will have it after, and, incidentally, all 
along the way. The San Diego Exposition is different 
from every exposition which has ever been since the 
world began — it never had a debt ! It opened on time 
with everything in place and all paid for. It is worth a 
trip of three thousand miles to see such a phenomenon. 



60 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

But there are other differences which are of even greater 
merit which come as a continual surprise from the; time 
we enter the gate. The 'buildings are a distinct de- 
parture from anything ever before conceived. The 
dominating ideal was to reproduce the elements of the 
old Spanish architecture with refined lines and with 
adaptation to the practical needs in showing, not simply 
the products of the world as other Expositions have, but 
more particularly the process by which they are pro- 
duced. There is a radical ^ difference between showing 
a pyramid of tea boxes and giving away sample sips, 
and showing a tea plantation growing and the steps 
along the way of gathering, curing, packing, distribut- 
ing and serving at the tea table. And so with other 
things; ''process" has been the key word of San Diego, 
and as the marvelous buildings are mostly built to en- 
dure, and to serve as a perpetual World's Fair, one is 
led to study both the exhibition places and exhibitions 
from a new point of view, and to find a novel and endur- 
ing satisfaction. 

San Diego had a great park, great in area, but a 
desert waste, and then came the vision of its unfolding 
possibilities, and to-day there is a miracle of transfor- 
mation, when a great mesa, which is Spanish for a high 
plateau with abrupt sides, has become the site of an 
idealized Spanish city, with nothing lacking to make it 
complete. "Whether we came to it up from the valleys 
now clothed with every species of vegetation, or over the 
Puenta Cabrillo across the canyon, we find ourselves 
gradually enfolded into the mystic charm of a Spanish 
atmosphere, and passing the gate and standing at the 
head of El Prado, the main street of the Exposition, 
with minds and hearts prepared, we look down the long 



SAN DIEGO AND ITS EXPOSITION GEM 61 

avenue with the expectation of a child at the opening 
of the Arabian Nights. 

Would it were possible to give some illuminating 
description of these buildings, but they defy the type- 
writer and court the photographer. And there is such 
a different spirit about the whole scene; none of the 
confusion and rush and roar of the bigger shows, but 
just the right, sleepy, leisurely, meditative air which 
takes the spirit captive. 

After our return from the drive of the morning, we 
had scattered for luncheon before going to the Exposi- 
tion grounds, and so it happened that a little group of 
four Universalists. entered the gate, and, in duty bound, 
bought a copy of the daily program. We glanced over 
the features of the morning and then came to the hour 
of one-thirty, and read, ^'Arrival of Special Party of 
Universalists!" We looked at our watches, and it was 
exactly one-thirty, and behold, we were it! We had ar- 
rived on time; we lifted our heads a bit higher and 
formed a procession of four, and, no longer walking, we 
marched down the Prado! 

What we saw would take a large volume to tell, but 
ere long the most conspicuous exhibit was the official 
blue badge of the Universalist delegates, who were ar- 
riving in ever increasing numbers, so that, in the end, 
Universalist Day became conspicuous, and an officer of 
the Balboa Guards, as the guardians of the public peace 
are called, approached me with the request from his 
chief of an official badge to file with the records of the 
Exposition, which request was gladly granted, though 
the demand for official badges had nearly exhausted the 
supply. 

Going down El Prado to the Plaza de California, 



62 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

passing the main exhibition buildings, all of which are 
worthy of continued attention, we come to the gem of 
the whole collection, the California building, which for 
beauty and grace and historic sentiment has never been 
surpassed. It is the reproduction of an idealized Span- 
ish cathedral, with its massive tower with severe lines 
until the drawing together for the spire begins, when it 
blossoms, literally like a gigantic yucca, in the most 
elaborate yet always delicate ornamentation. And the 
front of the main building, fearless in its novelty,, shows 
an arched doorway with a mighty window above which, 
like the spire, is a tropical garden grown in marble, and 
all this set against a background of perfect simplicity. 
Here one could linger for days, not simply to see, but to 
absorb grace. 

Across the Plaza is the unique art gallery, which 
is of greater worth than the exhibit within, though there 
are some good examples of historic American paintings, 
and not far away the Indian Arts building, where are 
gathered specimens of the handiwork of all the Southern 
Indians. 

But I can not pause with each attractive spot. Here 
is marvel after marvel, all joined by artistic colonnades 
through which we can pass from one to another without 
the sun lighting upon us, and through which one could 
wander for a season, and never exhaust the charm. 
Perhaps there is nothing more appealing than the con- 
centration and consequent accessibility of these exhibits. 
One is not dependent upon artificial transportation, and 
yet it is provided in a novel form. Over the smooth 
pavements there is rolling constantly the Electriquette, 
a, little wicker electric auto, holding two people, one of 
whom guides it with a lever, as it dashes along at a rate 



SAN DIEGO AND ITS EXPOSITION GEM 63 

not exceeding three miles an hour, which is the speed 
limit ! '' It is to laugh ! " at first sight, but presently the 
luxury and the appealing laziness of the thing win over 
prejudice, and it all seems fitting to the whole scene, to 
slowly and silently creep about, lost to time and sense, 
until the chill thought comes that you are paying a dol- 
lar an hour to go almost as fast as you can walk! A 
couple of our people from Rhode Island, tearing about 
the Plaza in one of these vehicles, paused long enough 
to remark that ^' these things are all right in a big state 
like California, but in Rhode Island you might run over 
the border at any minute and get hurt ! ' ' 

Along down towards the end of the ' ' Universalist Day 
Program" appeared, ''Dinner at the Cristobal Cafe by 
the party of Universalists ! " and at the Cristobal Cafe 
we appeared in groups of from two to a dozen, and 
tempted Providence, by attempting various Mexican 
offerings, but coming forth alive to spend the evening, 
as the exhibition buildings were closed, upon "The Isth- 
mus," as the Amusement Concession is called. Per- 
haps it is just as well that our space is exhausted, lest, 
lingering too long amid the frivolities, we miss the train 
which at midnight is to set us on our way over the Coast 
Route to San Francisco, and adventures new. 



CHAPTER VII 



Not one of us left Southern California without regret 
that we could not stay longer, and we are assured that 
some of the people, at least, in Southern California, 
regretted our going, but Itineraries are like the laws of 
the Medes and Persians, and must be obeyed. And it is 
fortunate that this is so, for we have discovered that 
thereby we are often blessed in spite of ourselves ! The 
independent traveler of independent means and inde- 
pendent time may see some things better, and in the long 
run, see all things best, but for those of the common 
human limitations, there is no place in all life's experi- 
ence where co-operation so justifies itself, making pos- 
sible for most of us the otherwise impossible. It is 
irksome at times to be pulled away from satisfaction and 
delight, because way back there months ago, we tied 
ourselves up to a schedule, and yet without the schedule 
and all the far-reaching plans made in advance, we 
should not have been there at all. Of course there must 
always be people who are willing when the sled is at the 
top of the hill to get on and ride down, providing they 
can have the best seat, but who resent indignantly the 
invitation to help drag the sled up to the top ! We are 
always sorry for them, for they are missing so much of 
the sweetness and light and worth of life. But we must 
learn this great lesson of co-operation in all of our 

64 



"EL C AMINO KEAL" 65 

Church work if we are to win any conspicuous success; 
team work is the winning factor everywhere, and that 
means having a program and following it. In our 
church life we have too often been guilty of breaking 
away from the Itinerary which in more or less of wis- 
dom has been made, and sometimes adopted with splen- 
did enthusiasm ; some of us who have voted for it have 




been the first to violate it, and too often it has been true 
that long before the Itinerary could be carried out, we 
have with enthusiasm laid it on the shelf and adopted 
another! There is a very big lesson for us to learn in 
this great Pilgrimage, and if we learn it, the price we 
have paid for the schooling will have been well spent. 

This homely homily was suggested to me at the close 
of our sessions in Pasadena, when having seen how, by 



66 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

all working together, we had made the impossible pos- 
sible, and held a successful convention thousands of 
miles from the centers of our strength, and we had all 
had such a very good time ; and when we summed up the 
results, individual and collective, they were all due to 
our working together for a common purpose, each mak- 
ing little or big sacrifices of personal tastes and desires 
for the common good. And so we faced the next event 
in our Pilgrimage, the meeting in the Exposition at San 
Francisco, with more of equanimity. There had been 
many anxious hours spent over that meeting, by the 
committee ; it was a serious question as to whether we 
could hold our people together for an occasion so por- 
tentous, but after our experience with the big conven- 
tions, we were turning our faces to the north with more 
of confidence, and yet not without perturbation, for to 
fail to measure up in numbers and dignity to an occasion 
of such possibilities would seem like a disaster. But we 
were away to the field of our opportunity, as in the early 
morning our "special" pulled out of Los Angeles for 
the all-day trip to San Francisco. 

It is rather hard to define the bounds of Southern 
California, for the atmosphere of that delectable land 
enfolds one through a long day's journey, and only 
passes with the day, when we climb over and plunge 
through the mountains about San Luis Obispo out of the 
daylight and into the dark, and still it lingers in beauti- 
ful memories to make fragrant the years to come. 

One of the charming features of this whole tour was 
the unfailing variety; each stage of the journey was 
different from every other, and while we might have a 
choice of one over another as a matter of personal taste, 
yet when the circle of our flight was completed, no one 



''EL CAMINO REAL" 67 

could omit from the experience any incident, without 
marring the whole. The fertile plains of the Mississippi 
and Missouri valleys, the deserts of Utah and Nevada 
with their weird charm, the Southern mountains dwell- 
ing in an atmosphere of romance, then the new Garden 
of Eden where amidst lowers and fruits, and never a 
serpent, we were suffered to dwell for eight precious 
days, until the angel of necessity drove us forth, to the 
marvels of the Northland with its crags and glaciers 
and jewel lakes. No, we can not spare anything from 
our glorious summer. 

Those sun-lit hours beside the sea on the Coast Line 
will be treasured, because of their own worth and be- 
cause they were different. We were a reunited family 
it seemed, for while we had been together at the hotel, 
yet we had sort of got the train habit, and enjoyed the 
renewal of the freedom of, for the time being, owning 
a whole train of cars. And there were new things to 
see. In half a century a new world has been created on 
the Pacific Coast, and every curve of the railroad brings 
to view new scenes, so novel and so beautiful, that our 
eyes are whirled from side to side, seeing much, yet con- 
scious of missing more. 

We of the East are wont to think of California as the 
"Golden State," because of her contribution of gold to 
the world's wealth, but while that metal may have been 
her commercial beginning, it was later discovered that 
the golden fruit of the orange tree was a more valuable 
possession, and even while the adventurous people who 
crossed the Rockies and the Sierras were enriching them- 
selves with these products, another, even greater, was 
waiting the call to service. There is a striking contrast, 
almost shocking, along this route; from within the 



68 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

closely built section of the city of Los Angeles itself, 
twisting here and yon among the hills, crowding close 
to fine residences and pushing into the harvest fields 
and orchards, down to the sea and really out into the 
sea, up as far as Santa Barbara, there is an ever enlarg- 
ing forest of derricks with their slow and ponderously 
moving pumps, lifting to the surface each year more 
than one hundred million barrels of petroleum, of more 
than double the value of the gold called from the mines. 
Think of it ; one hundred millions of barrels of oil ! 
Some grease spot! No wonder that California slid 
easily into wealth! But to us these dirty and smelly 
derricks broke the harmony of the view. And yet I 
wonder if our artistic sense would have been so shocked 
if we had been possessed of a good block of stock in those 
humble wells? But we enjoyed the unique experience 
of seeing oil pumped out of the sea, outdoing our Yankee 
speculator of a few years ago who failed in his effort to 
get gold from sea water ! But beyond the derricks and 
this side of the gold mines there were other and finer 
sources of income ; in Ventura County they are said to 
produce more beans than Boston can consume, and all 
the way north to where Southern California ends, wher- 
ever that may be, each spring the almond and apricot 
and prune trees 'turn thousands of square miles into one 
vast flower bed, and later pour another golden flood into 
the laps of these fortunate Calif ornians ! 

But do not fancy that all are fortunate, save in the 
fact that there are no climatic demands for clothing and 
shelter such as we know in the East; there are those who 
are poor and those who are sick, and once in a great 
while some one dies, but on the whole California is a 



'^EL CAMINO REAL" 69 

very good place to visit, when you have friends, a very 
good place to live, if 'you can afford it, and quite as 
good a place to die as any I have yet discovered ! But 
some one suggested : "If only it was not so far away ! ' ' 
And I thought, So far away from what, and where? 
Isn 't it curious how like we all are to the boy in the story 
I once heard James T. Fields tell to the boys at Tufts 
College. This boy lived in a little seashore town way 
down in Maine, and in the summer there came to the 
town a young man from New^ York, who because of his 
clothes and superior airs made himself conspicuous, and 
one day he met the small boy and, with much patronage, 
patted him on the head, saying, ''Ah, me boy, and where 
do you live?" And the boy answered, "In that little 
red house up on the hill, ' ' and then trying to be equally 
polite, he asked the young man where he lived. The 
young man lifted his head haughtily, and with evident 
pride answered, "Oh, I live in New York City!" The 
small boy gazed upon him with pity for a moment, and 
then said, "In New York City? I shouldn't think 
you'd like to live so far away!" 

That day along the Pacific was a reversed moving 
picture show, that is, we were moving and the pictures 
w^ere stationary ! But it is a genuine panorama all the 
way. So near does the track run to the ocean that from 
the car window, with a moderately long rod, one could 
troll in the surf for yellow tail, though he would stand 
more chance of catching a kid who was in bathing ! But 
there are some views which will long remain with us, of 
sandy beaches and picturesque rocks and a glorious surf 
inviting to a plunge. 

What a land to motor through, with the time to stop 



70 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

at all these charming towns, each with its own peculiar 
attractions, and some with hist6ric values, for we are 
following "El Camino Real," the "King's Highway" 
along which more than a century ago the Spanish 
Fathers built their Missions, and some of these can be 
seen from the train, but whether seen or not as we pass 
through the town, we can recall them from the facsimile 
we so recently looked upon at the San Gabriel ]\Iission 
Play, and see the setting of San Buena Ventura, Santa 
Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Carlos and 
others. Some of our party were fortunate enough to 
come on ahead of our train and have a little time at 
Santa Barbara to see this beautiful city and especially 
interesting Mission. 

All through the day we rode along just far enough 
above sea level to be out of the way of the surf, until, 
late in the afternoon, we came to San Luis Obispo, 
where a spur of the Coast Range pushes smartly out into 
the sea, and blocks the way for those who can not climb. 
But the train without a pause begins to climb, and in 
the next thirty miles, through tunnels, and creeping 
along ledges from which there are most entrancing 
views, we rise six hundred feet, and then in the next one 
hundred miles we plunge down again almost to sea level. 
There are few finer bits of mountain scenery than this 
one hundred and thirty miles, just before, for us, the 
night shut down, and what we saw of ]\Ionterey, and 
Santa Cruz, and the big trees, and Leland Stanford 
University, we saw by special excursions out from San 
Francisco. But many took advantage of our time and 
abstracted a day from the Fair, to see the beauties of 
Del Monte, and the Santa Cruz big trees, which, while 
not equal to the Mariposa grove, are yet big enough to 



^'EL C AMINO REAL" 71 

satisfy our Eastern eyes, and give us tales to tell which 
will cause our friends to look askance at us! 

But somewhere along in the darkness our train was 
delayed, none can tell why, so that instead of being 
in San Francisco at eight forty-five, as was intended, it 
was after eleven o'clock when we wearily climbed on to 
the waiting buses to be taken to our hotel. The ride 
through the brilliantly lighted streets of the magnificent 
city which has risen from the ashes of the great fire, was 
pleasing even to our dulled spirits and wearied bodies, 
for we saw in vision immediate rest and comfort at the 
hotel. 

Alas, our vision was soon shattered ! We were a big 
party, nearly two hundred of us pressed into the office of 
that hotel at the same time, and the time was near mid- 
night! The hotel people had misunderstood, they 
thought we were some sort of a girls' boarding school, 
and could therefore be provided for in blocks of from 
six to a dozen in a room. They did not know how to 
handle such a crowd, and proposed making each one 
register in the one book, with the one pen, and then to 
assign them rooms in the order of their coming. And 
had there been no interruption it is more than probable 
that some of us would be standing in line before that 
desk yet, but here was where our Cook Conductor arose 
to the occasion and took command, and for the next 
two hours ran that hotel, and so it happened that we 
were all in bed in very good rooms, by three o'clock in 
the morning. 

But there were some experiences before that time 
which can be related — and some which can not! Such 
mixings are seldom seen in good society. One lady 
finally got her key and went to her single room only to 



72 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

find it already occupied by three other good and sub- 
stantial single ladies! And then there is the sad ex- 
perience of a most dignified minister from Massachu- 
setts, who secured his key and was escorted by the bell 
boy to his room only to find it occupied by two ladies, 
who cruelly, he said, refused to let him in. He returned 
to the line at the desk and ultimately secured another 
key and another bell boy, but alas, this room was also 
occupied by a lady, and he sorrowfully wended his way 
again to the office, to be sent to another room, but the key 
would not go in the lock and excited voices told him to 
go away! He was getting weary and discouraged by 
this time, so in desperation he proposed to compromise, 
but his proposition was vigorously rejected, and he 
turned for the fourth time to the office and was seen no 
more till breakfast time, when he refused to make any 
explanations ! 

Two ladies secured a room most fortunately early in 
the game, and though they noticed a large valise in it 
thought nothing of it and went to bed, to be aroused 
some time later by a knocking at the door and a man's 
voice claiming the room, but the ladies were stubborn, 
and told him to go away, as they had gone to bed and 
would not be disturbed. So he went away. The next 
day the ladies went to the Fair and were gone until late 
at night, and on their return found their door locked, 
and a man 's voice refused them entrance. They insisted 
that it was their room, that they had oecupied it the 
night before, but the voice sleepily replied : ' ' I know 
you did, you had it last night and now it's my turn, and 
I am going to have it to-night!" He was a "regular" 
at the hotel, so new arrangements had to be made. 



EL CAMINO REAL' = 



73 



But all things came right in the end, and after a good 
breakfast the next morning, the sun shone on San Fran- 
cisco, the Exposition, and on our plans which hastened 
towards the climax of ' ' Universalist Day." 




COURT OF PALMS 



CHAPTER VIII 

SAN FRANCISCO THE PHENIX 

He who goes to San Francisco to see the Exposition 
and misses seeing San Francisco itself has sacrificed an 
opportunity, for among the cities of the worki, this child 
in their midst appears as a prodigy of daring enterprise, 
magnificent achievement, and heroic ideals. To those of 
us familiar with the old city before the great fire, the 
new seems but the fabric of a dream, for, with the knowl- 
edge that within a few years that whole vast area had 
been swept clean by the flames, the glory of the new in 
all its substance and beauty, throbbing with healthful 
and happy life, gives a new definition to man's mastery 
of circumstances. 

I sat in Union Square in companionship with one of 
our ministers from a prominent church in the East, and 
who has traveled nearly the world over, and he told of 
standing on Nob Hill shortly after the great fire, and 
looking out over the black desolation of what had been 
so recently a proud city, and he said it was inconceiv- 
able to him how it could be possible to make the city live 
again, and yet, he continued, to-day there is hardly a 
trace of the disaster ! All about us rose splendid build- 
ings of modern design and construction, through streets 
with exceptionally fine pavements ran a system of cars 
unequaled in America, largely under the ownership of 

74 



SAN FRANCISCO THE PHENIX 75 

the municipality, and scattered over the city were doz- 
ens of such beautiful parks as the one in which we were 
sitting. The whole thing was marvelous in our eyes, 
and it was to be counted among the chief attractions to 
take the sight-seeing tour which was provided in our 
itinerary. 

But while we sat in the beautiful little park by the 
fountain, we talked of other things, of our recent Con- 
ventions and of the future of our Church, and our part 
in making that future what it should be. We might not 
have large influence, but that did not matter, we were to 
do our part to set our Church on its way under new con- 
ditions. The old had passed away, we were no longer 
straining against the current of opposition, but so rap- 
idly was the religious world being swept along in the 
direction of our ideals that there was danger of our being 
swallowed up in the flood ! Surely a glorious death to 
die, but, far better,- a glorious time to live ! But what 
was to be our mission? We had just come from the 
First Congregational Church, where we had been to wor- 
ship and to hear Dr. C. F. Aked, having realized that 
this church and its pastor are conspicuous features of 
the life of San Francisco. 

We had found there a vast auditorium seating thou- 
sands, and yet before the service began so filled was it 
that one of us must needs be seated on the steps in the 
gallery, together with many others. And we had joined 
in a plain and simple service, and listened to a sermon 
nearly one hour in length which held the attention so 
that not one of the thousands moved. It was what 
would be called a Gospel sermon, with the dominance 
of optimism and confidence and an appeal for personal 
religion as the essential factor in the throbbing life of 



76 ■ A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

the city and the state, and the hope of humanity. After- 
wards we spoke with Dr. Aked, introducing ourselves as 
' ^ Universalists from the East," to which came the in- 
stant response from the preacher, "and I a Universalist 
of the West." And that is what he is in his thinking 
and preaching; though not joined to our Church he 
stands there at the head of the greatest congregation in 
the city, a heroic figure, fearlessly proclaiming his con- 
victions. Later I heard Dr. Aked again when he pre- 
sided over the "World Congress of Religions which was 
held at the magnificent Civic Center of the city. This 
Congress was molded after the World Congress of Re- 
ligions at Chicago, but did not approach that historic 
gathering either in numbers or dignity, but it was a 
significant gathering of representatives of the ''Philos- 
ophy of the Great Religions of the World." And Dr. 
Aked was chosen to preside over the opening meeting, 
and the announced title of his inaugural address was, 
"The Faith of a Universalist." His definition of the 
term Universalist was ours in a very general way, but 
not specifically. He was to introduce the representa- 
tives of the world 's religions and they were -to tell the 
things they stood for, to outline their philosophy, and 
Dr. Aked spoke as a "Universalist" among them, recog- 
nizing and accepting the good of all, and the thought 
that the Universal God had spoken to His children uni- 
versally. In this gathering there were to be no sub- 
divisions of the great divisions, so distinctions between 
different sects were lost in the larger views of the whole, 
bodies. There was a catholicity and genuineness in Dr. 
Aked's address which would have seemed to set the seal 
of the spirit of fellowship between those who "stood for 



SAN FRANCISCO THE PHENIX 77 

what is good and true," but it is unfortunate that par- 
tisanship flamed in some of the addresses. But this 
big Englishman with his broad faith and hearty fellow- 
ship has commanded the city and is a tremendous power 
for righteousness. 

And this man and his work reveal that there is a 
generous hearing and support for a Christianity that 
is liberal and Christian, and while we rejoice in his 
mighty achievement in winning thousands, there are 
many more thousands in this city who are astray re- 
ligiously, awaiting the message of the Universal Gospel, 
and making their silent appeal to us who have this Faith, 
to come and distribute to them. 

We should have a great church in San Francisco; our 
meeting at the Exposition, of which you are to hear 
later, demonstrated that. Several times Dr. Shinn 
made an attempt to start a mission here, but his efforts 
were fruitless because they were not big enough; one 
must make a great deal of noise to attract the attention 
of so big a city. Over in Oakland we had a church 
building and a society. Many a year ago I preached 
there to a good congregation on one Sunday, when no 
regular service was being held but the church was 
opened for the occasion. And there was the nucleus for 
a large and flourishing church, which would eventually 
have reached over to San Francisco, but it was a case of 
which we have so many, of not holding on, and eventu- 
ally we lost both the society and the building. Had we 
retained possession of the building we should now be in 
a position to revive the cause, for since the great fire 
across the bay, Oakland has sprung into marvelous life, 
values have gone soaring, and instead of being a suburb 



78 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

of San Francisco it is a great city of itself, and becom- 
ing greater every day. 

When I think of what we might have done in missions, 
and what we could do to-day if we were all possessed of 
a sane but irresistible missionary spirit, I feel that this 
Pilgrimage, which has revealed that when we really want 
a thing, a very few of us can raise one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars to get it, should give us a new 
self-respect, and stir our ambition to take our place 
among the living forces for the advancement of the 
truth . of Christianity. If we really wanted to place a 
church in San Francisco, as a few of us wanted to go 
there, we could do it; if we really wanted to place our 
Gospel of Good News at the disposal of the world which 
needs it above all other needs, we could and would do it. 
We have the forces, we have the money, we have the 
numerical strength to make this next year memorable in 
the upbuilding of our Universalist churches at home, 
and the planting of new churches in many of the grow- 
ing centers of population throughout the great West. 
No other church can do our work for us, we are called 
to service. The opportunity is now, and every Uni- 
versalist minister and every Universalist layman is sum- 
moned to duty. 

But I have been carried away from my specific theme 
of telling about San Francisco, by discovering what Dr. 
Aked is doing with our Gospel. 

San Francisco is a museum of places of interest, but 
I can pick only a few choice specimens. In the olden 
days the feet of the tourists turned instinctively and 
first to Chinatown, and it was not surprising, for that 
section presented to the American the one bit of un- 



SAN FRANCISCO THE PHENIX 79 

diluted foreign life and experience within our borders. 
Other nationalities without number were grouped in 
their own quarters in all of our large cities, but only the 
Chinese are invulnerable to American influences; a 
Chinaman remains a Chinaman through generations, no 
matter what his surroundings, and so when old China- 
town came into being, it was not by creation, but by 
transportation; a small section of old China was taken 
up and set down in the midst of the ne\Y city, right in 
the front dooryards of the newly rich who had built 
their mansions on Nob Hill. To step within that sec- 
tion, and the boundaries were sharply marked, was to 
pass out of America, while still within it, to find faces, 
fcod, clothing, manners, language, crime and virtue, all 
of foreign make. 

Then the great fire came, and, together with the man- 
sions on top of the hill, the curious old rookeries, with 
their interminable cellars and sub-cellars, the hives of 
human insects, were swept away. But in the rebuilding 
of the city, Chinatown, which had become so much a 
part of the community life, held to its old quarters, 
while the mansions of the rich moved back to the next 
hill. The rebuilding of this foreign quarter came under 
the direction of the city, and was made to conform to 
building laws, and to some extent to sanitary conditions. 
The buildings erected were like others in outward ap- 
pearance at first, but within a very short time after the 
flood of Chinese swept back to their old quarters, they 
were, in considerable measure, transformed by decora- 
tion and adaptation, until, with the revival of the pe- 
culiar odors, no one can mistake the place, and as of old, 
tourists are taken by their guides to see the marvels of 



80 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

life under what are, to us, unlivable conditions. It is 
an adventure worth the sacrifice of time and strength, 
and fraught with little danger unless one penetrate too 
deep into the intricacies of the celestial life ! 

It is curious how we look with wonder, and sometimes 
with disgust, upon other members of the human race, 
just because they are different ; we are thinking that our 
ways are better, and they are for us, but it is no farther 
from our gate to theirs than from theirs to ours, and 
we are not quite sure we know and 'have all the best yet, 
else we should not struggle so! But we must admire 
the courage and faith of the missions from Christian 
Churches which push into the very heart of this foreign 
life, hoping to implant a few seeds of the Christ spirit of 
living together, however different the dress and outward 
circumstance. 

To pass from the herding of the Chinese to the open 
of Golden Gate Park, is like going from gloom to day- 
light, but the transition can be very gradual if we will, 
for we can climb Up to the new ''swell" residential dis- 
trict at the top of Jackson and Washington Streets, and 
pass by some of the most strikingly beautiful homes in 
the world, but the march of years will sweep them away 
in time, out into San Mateo County and over to Berke- 
ley, for more and more are people with the help of rapid 
transit once more becoming rural in taste and practise. 
But the homes are there now and crown the hill with 
beauty, while beyond is the mighty region of comfort in 
the miles on miles of none the less homes, though housed 
in less of magnificence. 

And then we come to the Park. Like everything else 
in San Francisco, it is unique. There was nothing in 







SEAL ROCKS 

FOUNTAIN OF ENERGY 

AVENUE OF PALMS 



82 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

this great area of over one thousand acres to be pre- 
served save the contour of the surface ; it was a waste of 
sand and scant underbrush, a field for the artist of 
imagination, and ahnost beyond belief is the transforma- 
tion wrought ; here are roads, ideal roads, winding round 
about and over the hills, each turn disclosing landscape 
effects which charm the beholder. Flowers in this 
country need to have a different definition; we of the 
East judge of them as things of a season or of the hot- 
house, but here they run riot, and seem to laugh in the 
very joy of growing, and through this wonderful park, 
the lover of flowers is sure to have new, many new sensa- 
tions of delight. Here, too, are the Museum with its 
more than one hundred thousand exhibits, and the 
Academy of Sciences for those of studious turn, while 
for the children of few or many years, there are play- 
grounds of every description; there are fountains and 
lakes; in every appropriate arbored niche there is a 
piece of fine statuary, and through all the long drive or 
longer walk, it is a game of hide-and-seek with beauty, 
until, at the end, we face the broad Pacific Ocean, and 
just around a corner the famous Cliff House, from which 
we look down on the Seal Rocks, where of old and in 
moderation now the seals rolled and barked and whined 
in the fulfilling of their ideas of life, and incidentally 
gave pleasure to the spectator. 

But our ride carries us on around through the Lincoln 
Park and the Military Reservation, into the Presidio 
Reservation, where we look down from the cliffs through 
the Golden Gate and across to IMount Tamalpais, then 
on down the descent, through verdure hung roads, until 
we come to the high walls beyond which rise the towers 



SAN FRANCISCO THE PHENIX 



83 



and domes and minarets of the gem of all World Exposi- 
tions, and a moment later we are set down at the Main 
Entrance Gate, and the lure of the vision within is not 
to be resisted. 




THKY CALL IT A TEA HOUSE 



CHAPTER IX 

EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 

The brilliant young aviator, Mr. Smith, who cavorted 
a-bout through the air above the Exposition daily and 
nightly, tempting the dislocation of the necks of thou- 
sands of innocent spectators, enjoyed some unique priv- 
ileges to offset the risks he took and the dangers he en- 
countered. It must have been worth a good deal to get, 
in one comprehensive view, the marvelous pictures of 
this City of Marvels, which has been called into being 
to live its brief, butterfly-life, and then to disappear, 
leaving but a memory. Mostly visitors were enabled to 
see it only in sections, though from some of the hill-tops 
of San Francisco thosa who were not able to get a more 
angelic view could look upon, approximately, the whole 
scene which this latest, if not the last, World 's Fair, has 
unrolled beside the waters of the bay, and just within 
the Golden Gate. And we who saw it thus looked upon 
one of the fairest pictures man has ever created. It is 
astonishing how^ much of the esthetic and the romantic 
has survived the materialistic spirit of the age; fifty 
millions of dollars were raised out of the commercial 
and governmental interests, to be expended in such a 
way as to attract people enough to insure a reasonable 
return. And then these commercial speculators, with 
their wise knowledge of human nature, invoked beauty, 
and art, and music, and the most extravagant fancy of 

84 



EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 



85 



the human mind, with which to lure attendance. We 
call this a utilitarian age, but the most striking feature 
of the Exposition, that which remains most fixedly in 
the consciousness of those who have seen it, whether they 
like it or not, is the Tower of Jewels, and yet it is en- 
tirely useless, — except to look at ! This must be said of 
so much that is here : pictures, and statuary, and colon- 




PALACE OF HORTICULTURE 



nades, and arches, and pinnacles, and minarets, and 
domes, and fountains, and flowers, and fireworks, and 
flags, and frivolity! Is it not astonishing that these 
"hard headed business men" "waste" so much money 
on "such foolishness" ? Or is it not possible that mostly 
we have turned life end for end, and lost the real things 
while trying to gather that which becomes of value only 
when it is transmuted into the esthetic? Of course this 



86 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

Exposition is primarily for the exhibition of the material 
achievements of the age, and we shall find them all 
there, but the one thing which will abide, and make this 
Exposition distinctive among all the others, is the unity 
and beauty and harmony which we shall try to retain 
in pictures, but which must ever be elusive as life. 

It has been my fortune to have seen all the great 
Expositions since the Centennial at Philadelphia. I had 
my doubts whether it was wisdom which conceived of 
another for San Francisco, for it seemed to me that we 
had already reached the limit of ingenuity and ability, 
and must simply repeat, but I under-estimated the ca- 
pacities of man, and came here to find something new, 
and to discover that a new standard had been fixed, 
which is sure to discourage any immediate attempt to 
achieve. Of course the exhibits of products can not 
change very much, save in new adaptations and increase 
in quantity. Resolved back to beginnings, everything 
we produce must have for its object either to feed, clothe, 
instruct or amuse man ! It was the same back in '76 
at Philadelphia, the same at Chicago, Buffalo and St. 
Louis, and at every county fair. There are new forms 
of food and new styles of clothes, but they are still food 
and clothes, and that is all. There are new methods of 
instruction and attempts at amusement, but in nature 
they are the same. We see progress along some lines, 
but never away from the fundamentals. So to one who 
has seen all the exhibits for nearly half a century, the 
display inside the buildings at San Francisco brings a 
measure of disappointment. But it should be remem- 
bered that the vast majority of those who are looking 
upon these exhibits, are themselves new exhibits! That 
is, they are new lives, looking through new eyes, .upon 



EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 87 

new things, and the comparison they are going to make 
will be with the future, rather than with the past. But 
for myself, it appeared that the real achievement at 
Sari Francisco was in the magnificent architectural con- 
ception which has here been worked out, so far exceed- 
ing anything in the past as to be in a new class. 

Manifestly it is impossible to give a detailed descrip- 
tion within the limits of a brief sketch, and as a matter of 
fact it is hardly necessary, for so much beautifully il- 
lustrated literature has been scattered broadcast, that 
it is inconceivable that any one has missed the chance 
of knowing almost as much as the visitor to the grounds. 
And yet because of its genuine beauty and worth, and 
because it was the scene of one of the great achievements 
of our Church, it will not be inappropriate to stroll about 
for a bit iii this artificial fairyland, to revive and per- 
haps fix some of its features in our memories. 

Passing through the main entrance, only the blunted 
or diverted mind can fail to pause to take in the mag- 
nificent sweep of form and color, without an inharmoni- 
ous note. It is difficult to determine whether the gar- 
dens were designed to fit the buildings, or the buildings 
built to fit their emerald setting; any way, after the 
glare of the commercial city, the spirit finds repose in 
the swing of the eye from the Festival Palace on the 
right through the arc formed by the Court of Flowers 
and Court of Palms, with their background of Exhibi- 
tion Palaces, to the Palace of Horticulture on the left, 
while the apex is formed by the glittering and graceful 
Tower of Jewels, and through that we look into the 
riches of the royal Court of the Universe. All this 
sounds very un-American, and, save for some sugges- 
tion of the old Spanish-American period, the whole ef- 



88 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

feet is foreign, not connected with any one foreign na- 
tion, but rather a composite of the dreams of all in- 
stead of the reality of any. And yet it is American, for 
while the fixed lines of art control, yet the combination 
is new, and to that extent it is a new creation. 

In the foreground the whole spirit of the Exposition 
is embodied in the ' ' Fountain of Energy, ' ' where, on the 
sphere of the earth supported by the waters of the sea. 




/ 






COURT OF THE UNIVERSE 

stands the triumphant ''Victor," symbolizing the con- 
quest of earth and the bringing of the seas together. 
Here is a whole exhibition in this single composition. 
So numerous and so varied are the statues, each telling 
its story and making its contribution, that hours could 
well be spent in contemplation of this majestic work of 
art. And yet, while I looked, and looked again, I no- 
ticed how many thousands of people looking over and 



EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 89 

around passed on without having seen, and when later 
I questioned a seemingly wide awake visitor, I was told 
that he had never seen this particular fountain though 
he had passed in at that gate four times, and out as 
msiny ! That is the way with most of us ; some things 
are too close to us to be seen, and, again, are eclipsed 
by others far less worthy. We live with great people 
in our own homes and never know them, because they 
are so close, or because of the glitter of our neighbor 
who sparkles just over the fence ! 

But even while I criticise my fellow visitor because 
he did not see my fountain, he is very apt to put me to 
confusion because I missed entirely some Court or Ave- 
nue or Lagoon where he found delight. After all, we 
are mostly foolish, or at least have our foolish spots ! 
We find some choice bit of life and lose ourselves in it, 
and a great big world of delights remains undiscovered, 
and we are very apt to resent the different tastes of 
another who goes exploring paths which to us are un- 
familiar. And so it is well that the Exposition is so 
vast and varied, for each can have pleasure after his 
kind, and none may monopolize the whole. 

I saw a great deal, and yet I am continually hearing 
of the things I did not see, and the" chances are if I were 
to tell of all the things which came within my range, 
yet would one of our own party arise and prove my 
poverty because of something I missed along the way. 

The courts about which the buildings are grouped 
are strikingly beautiful, and each affords a restful and 
refreshing stopping place, for in each, after its own pe- 
culiar genius, are displayed works of art of real artistic 
and historic worth. Surrounding them all are colonnades 
majestic in their size and beauty, and whether we look 



90 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

from without to the within, or from the within to the 
without, or sit in contemplation of the beauties enclosed, 
there are few instances in the world where a graceful 
thought has found a more graceful embodiment. In 
the three central courts, that of "The Universe," which 
is the heart of the whole scheme, the Court of the Sea- 
sons, or the Court of Abundance, in which last the Cele- 
bration of Universalist Day was observed, we are im- 
pressed with the magnitude and the consistent working 
out of the thought of the artist. Looking upon the 
Arch of the Rising Sun, which forms one side of the 
Court of the Universe, . we see a creation which is im- 
pressive in its majestic proportions, and is crowned with 
a group of statuary representing the approach of the 
Nations of the East coming to greet the Nations of the 
West, which occupies an equally conspicuous place on 
the other side, while in the center there is a fountain, or 
rather a group of fountains, of such vast detail of sculi)- 
ture and ornamentation as to forbid description, and 
from this center we look out past the exquisite Column 
of Human Progress, and over the bay, to the real moun- 
tains miles away, but all so softened by the mists as to 
blend into a picture of rare beauty. 

But we all had our favorites among the creations of 
the fairyland, and mine was the Palace of Art, which 
is not surpassed by anything in this country, nor in 
Europe so far as my experience goes. A little apart 
from the more material interests very appropriately, and 
separated by a beautiful lagoon, surrounded by a lux- 
uriance of vegetation, a structure has been erected 
which, while indebted to the Temple of the Sun at old 
Athens for suggestion, is yet one of the most original 
conceptions which has taken material form. The build- 




ROUND ABOUT THE FAIR 



92 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

ing takes the form of a half circle over one thousand feet 
in length with an impressive entrance at the inner cen- 
ter, which faces a rotunda of splendid proportions on 
the very brink of the lagoon. The circle is followed by 
a colonnade of such proportions, in height and sweep, 
as to surpass anything of the kind ever before attempted. 
Each Corinthian column is in itself a marvel, but all 
together form a highway so awe-inspiring that even the 
careless must approach the door to the art exhibit with 
reverence. At the foot of each column, and wisely 
placed amidst the shrubbery, which is tropical in its 
profusion, there are innumerable statues, so that the 
visitor is enjoying art before entering its palace. I have 
never found anything in the way of a building, in all 
my world, so thoroughly satisfactory, furnishing such 
enduring enjoyment, as this Palace of Art, and it fills 
one with sadness to think that within a few months it 
must pass with all the lesser charms of the Exposition, 
and be no more. 

Of the exhibit within, I have not the space or the abil- 
ity to write, other than to say that there is a very marked 
difference between this display and those in former 
AVorld's Fairs, for the war in Europe has limited the 
contributions of many of the countries rich in art which 
have heretofore been most conspicuous. However, most 
of the countries have made a brave attempt, and the 
collection of foreign works is of great merit. But the 
conspicuous effect of the lessening of foreign exhibits 
has been to give room for and encourage probably the 
most extensive showing of American art which has ever 
been made, and we must be proud of our nation's 
achievements. Days and even weeks could be spent 
within the spell of this Palace^ but, as with most of the 



EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 93 

visitors, time became a determining factor and crowded 
me along to other attractions, perhaps, in their way, 
not less worthy. 

As compared with other Expositions, the San Francisco 
Fair is small in area, which is greatly to its advantage, 
making it so much more accessible. But by the time 
one has spent six or eight hours going about, even if he 
has been assisted on his way by the ridiculous little 
''Worm Trains" which go creeping about among the 
crowds, affording a most practical means of transporta- 
tion, he welcomes the approach of darkness and turns 
his face towards the Esplanade, extending along the 
shore of the bay, there to be one of such a multitude as 
is seldom seen, and watch the glorification of the whole 
scene, in the nightly illumination. 

I wish it were possible to describe this mastery of light 
and shade and color, with transformations on so vast a 
scale as to be almost unbelievable, but one can only give 
a hint as a reminder to those who saw, and a suggestion 
to those who did not. In the daylight the coloring of the 
buildings is very restful and pleasing, a rich cream, with 
just a suggestion of tint in more living color, a most 
agreeable change from the glaring white to which we 
have been accustomed, but the modifying of the glare 
hastens the effect of the darkness. With sixty thousand 
people, coming from all parts of the world, a little group 
of us sat in the deepening twilight and watched the 
Tower of Jewels, the massive walls of the buildings, the 
warships out in the bay, and at last the people around 
us, disappear behind the curtain of darkness, and then 
in a few minutes, amidst a silence which commanded 
us all, we felt rather than saw a soft glow of light reach- 
ing farther and farther through the colonnades, and 




CALIFORNIA BUILDING 



EXPLORING THE EXPOSITION 95 

deeper and deeper into the arches. There were no 
actual lights visible, for this remarkable effect is pro- 
duced by indirect illumination. And so columns and 
figures and faces and finally buildings, the lofty tower, 
and the ships on the sea were born anew, and then out in 
the very sky above us there swept a great ribbon of light 
which was looped and twisted into all sorts of fantastic 
forms, and we knew that the aviator was up there with 
his aeroplane outlining his gyrations in fire. Then of a 
sudden, from the gigantic electric plant on the edge of 
the water there sprang forth the long fingers of the 
searchlights feeling through the air until they found the 
glistening tower, or gilded dome, or the fleeing aeroplane, 
and then held them for our amazed sight, only a second 
later to change the white light to a veritable Niagara 
of colors flowing up and over and through, until we were 
literally engulfed in a sea of glory ! There are fireworks, 
too, and they are wonderful of their kind, but to me there 
has never come to my eyes a spectacle quite so wonderful 
as the illumination, when, in this new and beautiful 
world which man had conceived and created, man said, 
''Let there be light." And there was light. 



CHAPTER X 



" Universalist Day" at the Panama-Pacific Exposi- 
tion will be memorable in our history, and at least have 
a place in the enduring records of the Exposition. It 
was a venture of faith which occasioned many anxious 
hours on the part of the committee, and questions as to 
its wisdom were raised by many who were able to appre- 
ciate not only its opportunity but its risks. A success 
would mean much, a failure might mean more ! 

To secure a "Day" on the program, certain fixed con- 
ditions were to be met : In the first place the organiza- 
tion receiving the honor must, on a set date and hour, 
appear in a body at the main entrance, to be met by 
the officials of the Exposition, there to be photographed 
by the official photographer, then, under the lead of the 
Exposition band, to march in procession to the place of 
meeting in the Court of Abundance. There, after 
music by the band, an address of welcome to be delivered 
by a Commissioner of the Fair, to which the president of 
the organization is not only to respond in words of 
courtesy, but to deliver an address, reciting the history 
and purpose of the organization, which address is to be 
in typewritten form, and filed with the officials as a 
part of the permanent records of the Exposition. After 
this the order of exercises may be carried out, with such 
speaking and music as may have been provided. 

96 



" UNIVERSALIST DAY" 97 

To meet these conditions in such a way as to dignify 
the occasion and do honor to the Church, at first seemed 
quite impossible, for we have no local church in San 
Francisco to furnish the nucleus for such a gathering. 
We had taken something over three hundred from the 
East to the Conventions in Pasadena, but many of these 
had scattered after the sessions were over, and others 
had remained for a more extended visit in the South, so 
that only a part of our delegates were with us in the 
city, and to add to our discomfiture it was found that the 
large party which was to return via the Yellowstone 
Park would be obliged to leave early on our day, as the 
crowded condition of the Park would make it impossible 
to secure accommodations otherwise, so we were to lose 
a large group of some of our most prominent members. 
It did not look like the gathering of a very imposing 
"body" at the Main Gate! And as for the procession, 
I was reminded of the little girl who, being invited to 
some entertainment, said she could not go, because her 
"club" was to have a procession that day and she was 
to lead it ! An interested friend asked, ^ ' How many are 
there in your club ? ' ' and the small child answered, ' ' We 
have a membership of three, but one is out of town and 
the rest of us are going to parade ! ' ' What were we to 
show in the way of membership ? The humiliating pic- 
ture was presented to our imagination of the great Ex- 
position band of thirty pieces leading a procession of a 
dozen or two of Universalists in observance of Univer- 
salist Day! I confess that my sleep on that Saturday 
night was disturbed ! If every Universalist we knew of 
in the city were to "turn out" we could not count on 
more than two hundred, and we knew that some of these 
would fail us. Our day had been well advertised in the 



98 



A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 



official program and by the bulletins, and the committee 
had spent some money and hard work with the news- 
papers, and circulated announcements, but we ap- 
proached the hour with trepidation. 




COURT OF ABUNDANCE 



It was not my privilege to witness the gathering at 
the Main Gate, to be included in the official photograph, 
or to participate in the procession. At the time I was 
rather doubtful about the desirability of facing the pos- 
sibility of humiliation, but since, I have been disposed 



''UNIVERSALIST DAY" 99 

to resent the fate which prevented me from being in at 
the beginning*. But necessity required that one member 
of the committee should be in the Court of Abundance, 
to see about the arranging of the platform, the meeting 
of the choir, and to greet the Commissioner of the Ex- 
position who was to extend the welcome, so it transpired 
that Dr. McGlauflin, the chairman, who had worked 
early and late for the success of the enterprise, went 
forth to meet — what, he did not know ! — while I re- 
mained to await the coming of — what, I knew not. I 
confess that during that half hour when waiting I had 
several chills of apprehension. Here was this -vast court 
in which fifty thousand people could easily be accommo- 
dated, and which was not infrequently filled to hear the 
concerts by Sousa's band; there before me were seats 
arranged for a thousand people, and as the hour of three 
o'clock approached, a few, mostly strangers, came strag- 
gling into the seats, until there were about eighty of the 
chairs occupied. It was a place in which a crowd was 
necessary, an individual looked so small against the 
background of those majestic colonnades; the platform, 
far bigger than the auditorium of any church, its back 
wall formed by the fine north tower and arch of the 
Court, and fronting the rows of seats and back of them 
the beautiful fountain, was itself impressive. There 
was such a sense of bigness, of opportunity — truly I was 
in the Court of Abundance. Could we, so few of us, 
so far from any of our centers, make any showing at all ? 
The Commissioner arrived, Mr. Charles A. Vogelsang, 
and introduced himself, and immediately asked me to 
tell him who we were and what we stood for. He ad- 
mitted that he knew we were a religious body, but beyond 
that he knew nothing, so in five minutes I told him of our 



100 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

name, faith, history, work and purpose, and as I finished, 
he said, ' ' Why, I am a Universalist ! " ' ' Then, ' ' I said, 
"you must wear our badge," and he took my official 
badge and pin, and a few minutes later spoke his wel- 
come as one of us. 

But presently came the sound of music, and I looked 
across the Court to the arch on the other side to see what 
was coming — would there be fifty or a hundred ? How I 
hoped for at least one hundred and twenty to go with the 
eighty already seated. And then through the noble arch 
swung the band, followed to my amazement and joy by 
a noble procession. On they came, two by two, led by 
the officials of the Exposition and the officers of our four 
organizations, to the number, by actual count, of over six 
hundred, and then came from all directions those who 
were drawn by curiosity probably, or by the music, until 
more than a thousand people were present during some 
part of the long exercises. 

Where did they come from? It was only after the 
exercises were over that I could answer, but then there 
came forward so many strangers to ask, "Is there any 
one here from Bangor, Maine ? I used to belong to the 
Universalist Church in that city years ago. Now I live 
just out of San Francisco, and am so glad to see some 
Universalists again." Then another asked about some 
other place, and so on and on, until it was revealed that 
these people who had joined our procession really be- 
longed to us. And here were hundreds of them from all 
over Central California who did not know each other, 
but who had seen the notice of the gathering of LTni- 
versalists and came to again refresh their souls with the 
faith once delivered to the saints. What a revelation of 
our losses through failure to conserve our own ! What 



''UNIVERSALIST DAY" 101 

a revelation of present opportunity! In hundreds of 
places throughout the West, we have the nucleus for a 
church. And in San Francisco we should and must, in 
the not distant future, have a church of sufficient size 
and dignity fo command attention and proclaim an ef- 
fective ministry. 

But the great audience was seated, the back of the 
platform was filled with the musicians, along the front 
were ranged the Exposition officials and the officers and 
trustees of our four organizations participating, and 
then the following program was carried out : 

Meeting called to order by the Rev. Lee S. McCollester, 
S. T. D., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Gen- 
eral Convention. Singing of '^America," by the con- 
gregation, led by the Exposition Band. Address of Wel- 
come by Mr. Charles A. Vogelsang, Commissioner of the 
Panama-Pacific Exposition. Response by the Rev. Dr. 
McCollester, with address on '^The Faith, History and 
Work of the Universalist Church." Music by the 
Ladies' Quartette, Miss Burns, Miss Pasmore, Mrs. 
Graham, and Mrs. DeLong. Scripture Lesson and 
Prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Wm. H. McGlauflin. Address, 
' ' Universalism and Worldwide Problems," the Rev. Dr. 
Marion D. Shutter. Solo, Miss Althea Burns. Address, 
^'International Peace," the Rev. Frank Oliver Hall, 
D. D. Congregational hymn, ''The New Age Vision." 
Benediction, the Rev. Frederick A. Bisbee, D. D. 

Most of these addresses we have published in the Uni- 
versalist Leader. We regret exceedingly that we have 
not a stenographic report of the word of welcome from 
Commissioner Vogelsang. As an address of its kind, 
it was a work of genius. When we consider that ten 
minutes before its delivery the speaker had to confess 



102 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

that he knew nothing of our church, we recall with con- 
stantly renewed amazement his comprehensive grasp of 
our faith as the Gospel of Optimism, and the felicitous 
way in which he connected our philosophy of the Uni- 
versal with the universal purpose of the Exposition. 
And all said in less than ten minutes. We who feel we 
are called to speak in public on the stage need to take 
lessons from Commissioner Vogelsang in return for the 
lesson in Universalism he so graciously took from us.. 

We were fortunate in being able to secure, through 
Prof. H. B. Pasmore of San Francisco, the choir of 
fine voices which aided so much in the religious ser- 
vices. And altogether, we can take great satisfaction 
in ^'Our Day." 

There were some disappointments, however, and we 
have some lessons to learn. If we could only have known 
in advance what the Day was to mean to us ; if we could 
have dreamed that six hundred people would seemingly 
rise out of the ground to hear again, or for the first time, 
the message of Universalism, the program committee 
would have been a little wiser in making up its program, 
not necessarily changing the speakers, but adding to 
them enough others to have secured the. outlining in half 
a dozen ten-minute speeches, of our reasons for being 
on the earth ! We had a great opportunity and we did 
well under the circumstances, but we should have done 
better. We did not know that a San Francisco fog, cold 
as Greenland's icy mountains, was going to sweep in 
through the archway, when our meeting was about two- 
thirds over, but it did! You may not know what a cold 
San Francisco fog is ! Well, to the delicate Eastern 
constitution it seems like the liquefying of the North 



'^UNIVERSALIST DAY" 103 

Pole and pouring the same down the back of your neck ! 
Our theology was not Orthodox enough to counteract 
it, and we surrendered and missed the climax of the oc- 
casion, ■ But perhaps it is just as well ; I do not think 
we could have stood any more glory in one day, but next 
time we shall be better prepared. We shall know what 
to do and how to do it. 

AVe should have had a fine exhibit at the Exposition 
of all our literature, and pictures and statistics of what 
we have done in the way of missions, education and social 
service. We could not have invested one thousand dol- 
lars to better eftect than to have established such an ex- 
hibit and placed it in charge of a wise manager. We 
should have been able to send our message to every land 
under the sun. We struggle so hard to get a congrega- 
tion of two hundred to whom we want to impart our 
Gospel, when by the use of literature in a World's Fair, 
we can reach hundreds of thousands of people. But 
we must think in larger figures; we must want to do 
something big enough to be worth while. Instead of 
asking some of our poor people for a contribution of a 
dollar towards making an exhibit, we must expect from 
some of our rich people a thousand or five thousand dol- 
lars to do the thing right. We know there are those who 
are sad as they think of the members of our little church 
spending more than one hundred thousand dollars on 
this memorable pilgrimage, but it was the best invest- 
ment we ever made. If three hundred of us can raise 
one hundred thousand dollars when we are interested, 
then the three hundred thousand members of our congre- 
gations can easily raise a million dollars to set our cause 
on its way towards that success which will mean the 



104 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

world's salvation. We do not know our possibilities, 
any more than the committee of arrangements knew that 
six hundred people would rise up out of the ground to 
worship with us on Universalist Day at the Exposition. 

The official photograph, about a yard in length, is of 
historic value. Excellent in quality, it is well worth the 
price of one dollar, showing as it does really fine por- 
traits of the hundreds who assembled to honor themselves 
in honoring our day. In the front row appear about all 
of the officers of our Conventions, and the leading men 
and women of our denomination. 

Universalist Day was the climax of our tour. Every- 
thing had led up to that, and mostly our people had 
kept in line, but it was curious to see how there were some 
who were timid, who did not dare to take any risk of 
humiliation, and they kept out of the picture, and out 
of the procession, and came in on the side a little later! 
This is one thing we must overcome, this separateness, 
this exclusive spirit which lingers in the background 
until others have won, success, and then seeks to come in 
for a share ! But what progress we have made ! Never 
have we had such a record of faithfulness in attending 
upon the sessions of the Conventions and the ''post-Con- 
vention ' ' meetings, even amidst such temptations to stray 
as were never before presented. We glory in the 
achievements of the Pilgrimage; we glory more in the 
new sense of what we can do, and what we are going to 
do from now on. 

Much that was done in the way of missionary work 
along the way, going and coming, has not yet been re- 
ported, and will not be until the General Superintend- 
ent tells the story, and when he does, it will occasion 
surprise and joy to know that when I have told the story 



UNIVERSALIST DAY 



105 



of the trip and of our Conventions, the half of the good 
work has not been told. But for me there remains but 
the pleasant task of returning the Pilgrims to their 
Eastern homes. 





f^^B^mk 


^^ <ti 


I^^^^^^^^HI 



THE COLONNADE 



CHAPTER XI 

FACING HOMEWARD 

Had not my j^arents thoughtlessly refrained from 
having triplets when I was born, it would have been a 
great convenience to me when, at the dispersion of the 
Universalist hosts the morning after " Universalist 
Day," three parties took three different routes to their 
Eastern homes ! Manifestly I could not accompany 
them all, and as a matter of fact I did not accompany 
any one of them, so at least I can occupy a neutral posi- 
tion in the conflict of opinion which has arisen through 
each party claiming it had the best time ! Generally I 
have found it the part of wisdom to agree with a re- 
turning tourist, whether European or American ; having 
been one myself, I kngw how difficult it is to get the 
other fellow's point of view. Fortunately I am' a sym- 
pathetic listener to the tales -of all these three parties, 
because much of the ground traversed is familiar to me 
through going over it, if not by train, then by post 
card and railroad circulars! And, by the way, much 
of the joy of the modern traveler is dampened in these 
days by the flight of picture postals which haunt him 
with their truth telling, when he is in a romancing 
mood ! The returning traveler from an unknown region 
has been under peculiar temptations to feed the eager 
wondering of his hearers, not only with the things he 
really saw, but with those far greater wonders he im- 



FACING HOMEWARD 107 

agined. So common were lapses in this line in the past, 
that it is recorded that a cautious Scotchman who was 
to introduce a somewhat famous lecturer on travel, 
said, as he called the meeting to order, "With your per- 
mission I will open the meeting with a bit of a prayer, ' ' 
and then prayed, ''0, Lord, have mercy on the soul of 
Thy servant, and may he speak the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth. Amen." And then 
turning to the lecturer he said in a whispered explana- 
tion, ' ^ You see, sir, I have been something of a traveler 
mysel M " Now every one, though he be a home-body, 
knows so much that it is difficult to tell him anything. 
But there is a great advantage to be enjoyed by the 
traveler through almost any portion of the great West, 
for the West is so big, and so varied, that after you con- 
clude you have seen it all, you are just about ready to 
begin again, and even those who may not have departed 
from the customary lines of travel, .can yet rejoice in 
having seen something which no one else has been able 
to pick up along the well-worn way. And another fact 
which is vital is that real scenery, the majesty of nature 
in her more rugged moods, does not exhaust itself in 
being seen over and over again. The fact that hundreds 
of thousands of marveling eyes have gazed upon the 
weird and awful grandeur of the Grand Canyon, has 
not taken away from that titanic spectacle one atom of 
its power to thrill the sensitive heart and artistic sense 
of the soul that gazes upon it for the first time. It is 
one of the glories of God which is new every morning 
and fresh every evening, save to the superficial and cal- 
loused soul into which its sublimity can not sink. 

We have been seeking the values which have been 
returned to those who took this great pilgrimage, and 




THREE MOUNTAINS 

SIR DONALD 
MOUNT TAMALPAIS MOUNT LOWE 



FACING HOMEWARD 109 

we are apt to miss the greatest value of all. Of course 
every minister who was fortunate enough to be of the 
chosen, is sure to get no end of sermons from what he 
has seen, and many of them, we fear, will get several 
lectures! Through all the years to come their sermons 
will be enriched with illustrations gathered along the 
way, and their conversation punctuated with, ''When I 
was in the West ! ' ' We can see and hear what they got, 
but the real riches of the journey came to these young 
people who were seeing for the first time, who had not 
yet put on the glasses of the critic, and who now, after 
it is all over, hesitate and stumble, and cry out in their 
despair, ' ' Oh, I can not tell ! " Of course they can not 
tell; their minds and hearts are like a jug too full to 
pour ! But the wonder and worth are there, and will all 
come out in their developing life. They could only cry 
out, ''Oh!" and "Ah!" or, most impressive of all, keep 
silence, as they stood before the imperial majesty of one 
of the mountains of the Lord's House, but the impres*- 
sion on those mobile souls will never die. There was 
more of genuine education for the young in the month 
of experience, than in years in the school room with life 
and scenery at second hand. 

It would have been a joy to keep our group unbroken 
and to share the thrills of scenery through the Sierras, 
the Colorado Rockies, the National Park and the Cana- 
dian Rockies, but of course it was impossible within the 
brief limits of one month, and therefore, by dividing, 
we could bring home a composite picture to which each 
could make a contribution. And those on one route 
could easily follow in imagination those upon another, 
and, as I have intimated, the unfettered imagination 
serves to enrich realities, and turn commonplaces into 



110 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

extravagances. I had thought to gather from the re- 
turned pilgrims enough of details of all the journeys as 
seen through other eyes, to make an interesting and com- 
prehensive account, but I presently found it was imprac- 
tical. When I asked one who had been through the 
Canadian Rockies for interesting incidents, he said, 
''Did you hear of the experience of one of our ministers 
who grew eloquent over the splendor of the scenery, and 
tried to get some practise for his next lecture, on an in- 
nocent and inoffensive native?" No, I had not heard, 
and this is what he told: We had gone a little aside 
from the beaten path, and come into a deep valley, or 
canyon, or cooley, or whatever you may call it, where 
there was a little log cabin, with several small children 
playing about, and a tough looking, fiercely bewhiskered 
man wlio, if not a native son, seemed to have all the 
marks of the soil. He seemed kindly and commonplace 
enough, and cheerfully gave us a drink of water, but 
was a little shy of information, and, so far as we could 
see, was wholly unimpressed with the grandeur of the 
mountains surrounding his home, in fact, it almost ap- 
peared that he had never seen the splendors in the 
midst of which he was living, and so it appealed to one 
of our ministers, who is conspicuous for his eloquence, 
that the man should be enlightened as to the riches 
amidst which he was privileged to live. And so he 
pointed to a majestic peak and remarked upon its sub- 
limity, and the native looked up to it as if seeing it for 
the first time, and confessed it was a pretty big hill, and 
the best place for berries in that section ! Undiscour- 
aged, the man of eloquence began again, and waving his 
arms with comprehensive gesture, he asked if the glory 



FACING HOMEWARD 111 

of that scene never unfolded before him as the turning 
of the leaves of revelation. "Have you never seen the 
lambent flame of dawn leaping above the corrugated 
horizon on the east? Have. you never seen the sulphur- 
ous islets floating in a seat of fire ? Have you never seen 
the shadows of midnight, black as the raven 's wing, blot- 
ting out these monstrous, volcanic creations which rim 
your valley ? ' ' And then, as he paused for a reply, the 
native said slowly and distinctly, "Well no, stranger, I 
hain 't never seen none of them things — since I signed the 
pledge!" 

Now taking that as a sample of what I could get from 
others, I am thrown back upon my own resources for 
material for our final glimpse of the Golden West and 
the last days of our vacation before we open the door of 
home and begin the homely task of paying the bill for 
our pleasant outing. 

It was altogether gratifying that we could hold to- 
gether so many of the original party up to the climax 
of our special day at the Exposition ; that the supreme 
object of our pilgrimage, that of serving our Churchy 
could have been so well accomplished as to not only make 
an impression upon the Pacific Coast, but to bring into 
the hearts of all our workers, in every department, a 
new and lively sense of unity for a larger service. There 
is no doubt about our having put heart into our workers 
in the West, but our larger service is the awakening of a 
new self-respect in our Church throughout the whole 
country ; we have reveal,ed to ourselves, and to others, 
that we are capable of doing large things in a large way, 
we have revealed to ourselves, what some had begun to 
doubt, that there is a place in the world for the Uni- 



112 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

versalist Church, a place no other can fill. And we have 
learned some lessons which will be of the utmost value 
to us in the future, when we begin to do some of those 
things and fill some of those large places. We have 
learned that the keyword to our success is co-operation 
in whatever we attempt; that we must learn the lesson 
of self-sacrifice, the giving up of our own particular 
hobby when it is for the general good, that we can do 
these great things only as we all join in and give our- 
selves to them. Of course we can figure out, as some did, 
how they could do some things cheaper, and see some 
things which they liked pretty well, by going away and 
flocking by ourselves, but that is not the way the world 
or a church or genuine happiness moves forward. We 
must discover that in things worth while, we gain only 
by giving. And we have had a great lesson in this ele- 
mental factor of success. 

And after learning our lesson, and enjoying our school- 
ing, we are going home to all its sacred associations, but 
with a larger vision. And it remains for me but to take 
you by the most direct route, but you can be assured 
it is not without beauty and interest, and perhaps as 
you must hear from others about the other ways, this one 
may have the virtue of novelty. And as my group of 
travelers was small, and all are pledged to endorse what- 
ever I may say, there are tempting diversions to the 
wooing of which I may not say nay. 

The first trans-continental railroad was opened when 
the golden spike was driven which joined the Union 
Pacific and the Central Pacific roads near Ogden, in 
Utah. That was a good while ago, and at the time it did 
not seem possible that there would ever be any need of an- 



FACING HOMEWARD 113 

other line, but to-day there are several roads which have 
broken through the mountain barriers and tied the two 
oceans more firmly together, and. these new roads with 
their spirit of enterprise have magnified to the traveling 
public the wonders and charms of scenery which they 
have unfolded, and so the old ''direct route" has been 
somewhat obscured by the glory of the newer routes. 
But after having been over this route four times and 
over all but one of the other routes at least once, I want 
to say that if the Ogden route could be freed from the 
disconcerting and disappointing snow-sheds through so 
much of the trip over the Sierras, it need ask no favors 
of the others; even if the management would kindly 
knock out a board on the line of the eye, or hinge the 
board so it could be dropped during the summer, it 
would add at least a million to its assets in its appeal to 
the tourist. But as it is, one can enjoy playing hide and 
seek with some of the world's grandest scenery. We 
come to it in such a natural and winning way, when, 
after passing through the Sacramento valley, we begin to 
climb up through the canyons, we watch the great world 
unfolding below us, and then plunge into a veritable 
turmoil of rocky peaks and chasms, each turn opening 
new scenes and wonders, until we are impressed with 
the mystery and magnitude of the handiwork of 
God. 

It is an experience long to be remembered, to have 
really climbed over a wide range of mountains, and you 
get this experience in the Sierras as you can not in the 
Rockies, for there the approach is too gradual. Through 
the daylight we climb up, we poise for a brief moment 
on the summit, and then plunge down, conscious all the 



114 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

time of the incline of the car, so steep is the ascent and 
descent. 

Just over the summit at the queer, wild western city 
of Truckee, one feels the lure which draws one still 
deeper into the mystery of the high places, to where rests 
the brightest jewel of the Sierras, Lake Tahoe. Mine is 
but a memory-visit, but the memory remains as deep and 
clear as the waters of th.e lake. How did it happen, 
this great body of water near the top of this majestic 
range of mountains ? Nothing attracts me quite so much 
as lakes, not simply because there are possibilities of 
fishing, but because water is such a near approach of the 
material to the living, and in Tahoe water is at its best 
- — the great area of the surface surrounded by heavy 
timber to the water's edge, and back farther the moun- 
tain peaks, often snow-capped in the midst of summer, 
unbroken through the circle of the horizon. And then 
the depths ! So clear is the water that the bottom is as 
clearly seen at seventy feet as the mountains through 
the rare atmosphere. I tried to compare Tahoe with the 
lakes in the East, with those of Switzerland and Italy, 
but Tahoe is incomparable ; I believe it is the most beau- 
tiful sheet of water in the world, and for those who can 
break the trans-continental journey with a few days on 
its shores or sailing over its surface, there is an undy- 
ing experience of beauty and satisfaction. 

From Truckee there is a coast of hundreds of miles 
down the Truckee River canyon and out on to and across 
the desert of Nevada and Utah, until we strike the Great 
Salt Lake, as weird as Tahoe is beautiful. This we cross 
by the now famous ''Cut-off" on which the train literally 
goes to sea, even as it does on the Key West road off the 



FACING HOMEWARD 115 

south of Florida. It is novel, this. going to sea in a Pull- 
man, but it is an illustration of the spirit of ' ' get there ' ' 
which dominates the age. We must spend millions of 
dollars in order to cut out a couple of hours from a 
journey of five days. We wonder at the venturesome- 
ness of men who are willing to risk the millions, but we 
must remember that we who travel and pay the freight 
pay this bill also, and we do not notice the millions, be- 
cause our personal share is so small ! 

East of the Rockies, the trans-continental journey is 
like marriage in books ; it is the end of the story ! We 
follow the hero and heroine through the chapters of 
their trials and tribulations, we give them our sympathy, 
even our tears, and then when we have kept them com- 
pany right up to the wedding day, the door is slammed 
in our faces and we are out in the cold! Perhaps be- 
cause we are not to know, or already know too much. 
Just so the returning pilgrim from the Pacific Coast 
is enthusiastic until he slips down into the Mississippi 
valley with its monotonous levels, so rich in production, 
so poor in variety ; — the story is done, the book is closed. 

Perhaps it is a good place to close my story of this 
great Church enterprise which, started with such timid- 
ity, carried on with such faith, has culminated in such 
an unqualified success. Naturally to so humble a tale 
there should be, as was the fashion in olden times, an- 
other chapter of moralizing, but I have the happy 
thought of referring you all for all possible morals, to 
the editorial department of the Leader during the suc- 
ceeding months, for the riches of this pilgrimage are not 
to be exhausted in any one' telling. I might go on in- 
definitely, but I prefer to emulate the Irish orator, who 



116 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

after talking for three hours, closed by saying, "I am 
not through, but I 'm done ! ' ' And I am done, save for 
an attempt to follow stumblingly some of the other Pil- 
grims on their homeward way. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE JOURNEY I DID NOT TAKE 

So many of our people returned by the northern 
routes, that this record would be incomplete were we not, 
in spirit at least, to follow and share with them the ad- 
ventures and joys which seemed the culmination of this 
remarkable pilgrimage. To me much of the territory 
traversed has been made familiar through former 
journey ings, and so with the help of other eyes I shall 
go again over old paths, and even into those that are new. 
And after all, I shall only be doing what we are all do- 
ing all the time; it is such a little world we see and 
know until it is multiplied and magnified through others. 
The journeys I have taken through others going, the 
things I have seen through others seeing, the things I 
have known through others knowing, swell my own small 
experiences into a life worth living. And there is yet 
another advantage to the indirect method; — we have 
the unpleasant screened out while the good remains. Of 
course there are bound to be some shadows on every path 
— they were very real and very serious when they fell 
on me — but so soon are" they lifted that they seem never 
to have been, and so when I see through others ' eyes and 
hear through others' ears, if I choose, my journey may be 
through ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. And 
I so choose. 

There are two ways north from San Francisco, prob- 

117 



118 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

ably more, but two ways generally chosen by travelers. 
One is by sea, and how well I remember my experience 
on that voyage many years ago. It was just after the 
discovery of gold in the Klondike, and accidentally we 
were caught in the mad rush which nearly overwhelmed 
the first steamer to sail after the news reached San 
Francisco. And we were in the rush ; our innocent pleas- 
ure trip to British Columbia was rudely interrupted by 
this scramble after gold. The ship was so jammed with 
men and mules and munitions that it was almost im- 
possible to move, and to get to the dinner table one must 
sit on the companion stairs from breakfast time ! But 
in spite of discomforts we came safely into port. The 
voyage is different to-day, and as I take it over with 
some of our party, without the fret of buying tickets, 
and getting state-rooms and taking chances of being sea- 
sick, I discover that the boats are bigger and better and 
faster, and there is the excitement of a contest with the 
railroad train, which in the valley just over the Coast 
Range is speeding to Portland, and we get there in just 
the same time. 

There is a bit of a thrill to the Easterner in being 
afloat on the great Pacific Ocean, which separates us 
from, and joins us to, the mighty and mysterious East- 
.crn Hemisphere. We shall never be quite so local again ; 
our horizon has been extended and all our standards of 
judgment must be reset. The waters of the Pacific do 
not differ greatly from those of the Atlantic, but even a 
twenty-four hours' sail upon them will shatter a lot of 
our littleness. A wide view on the waters of a wide 
ocean has a suggestion of the transforming power of a 
wide view in theology, and I am sure all our young peo- 
ple who have enlarged their .horizon by this trip will be 





VIA SHASTA ROUTE TO CANADA 



120 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

more appreciative of the splendid liberty and glorious 
perspective of their Church. 

But mostly our party followed the scenic Shasta route, 
and there is nothing better, however different. Very 
often we make a mistake in comparing or contrasting 
scenery instead of enjoying each bit on its merit. The 
mountain that is fourteen thousand feet high may not 
have the charm of the one that is only ten thousand, for 
all these 'measurements are from the sea level, and the 
mountain of ten thousand feet rising directly from the 
sea, as a matter of scenery, is higher than the one of four- 
teen thousand feet, if the latter is only to be seen when 
the observer is himself five thousand feet high before he 
looks. It all depends upon our point of view in judg- 
ing mountains — or men. 

There is a certain amount of satisfaction, whether jus- 
tified or not, in having our prophecies fulfilled. When 
the pessimists were foretelling our suffering from the 
heat in the south country, I maintained that we should 
suffer more in the north, and that is the way it turned 
out, for the first really oppressive heat was experienced 
that first night up through the Sacramento Valley and 
the next day, through the beginnings of the northern 
mountains. But in spite of the oppression, the pano- 
rama unfolding as the train sped on held the literally 
breathless attention. Mount Shasta is the shifting cen- 
ter of all the pictures, for with atmospheric conditions 
favorable, this marvelous Mountain of the Lord's House 
appears and disappears, and with each new appearance 
presents some new face and charm. For half a day we 
are in its companionship, and once we stopped seemingly 
almost at its foot, but really miles away, to drink of the 
Shasta Spring whose waters are pushed upward in a 



THE JOURNEY I DID NOT TAKE 121 

most graceful fountain, and then on into the very heart 
of timber-clad mountains, whose sides are .scarred here 
and there by mining enterprises, till we crossed the state 
line of Oregon and swept down into the beautiful city 
of. Portland, to be the guests of our own church people. 

The story has already been told of that day, and yet we 
must repeat, in the words of one of our keenly observing 
young people, that the reception was one of the bright 
spots in the whole trip. In this great commercial center 
and beautiful residential city, we found that there had 
been builded a Universalist church which was a real 
church; in location and architecture, and the memory 
of the historic laying of the corner-stone by President 
Taft, it had won a commanding place in the community. 
Dr. Corby, the pastor, led his people in a whirlwind of 
hospitality. An Oregon lunch, largely of salmon and 
loganberry pie, and a drive which was showered with 
the roses which ''bloom every month in the year," made 
memorable the hours, and left enriching recollections. 

From Portland the way was through Tacoma to 
Seattle, the latter being the stopping place, but a few 
returning to Tacoma for a service in our church, which, 
under the ministry of Mr. Morgan, has won a notable 
and enduring success. 

Tacoma and Seattle have only one great mountain to 
divide between them — in the former place you must 
speak of it as Mount Tacoma, in the latter as Mount 
Ranier, unless you would invite questioning glances — 
and yet it has beauty enough for both if either the smoke 
or the fogs do not veil its face. Some were fortunate 
enough to see the veil lifted, disclosing an ideal peak. 

One of the pleasantest features of the itinerary was 
disclosed in the steamer trip over Puget Sound to Vie- 



122 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

toria, and later to Vancouver. Few bodies of water in 
the world are so ideal for voyaging, for, sheltered as it is, 
it is peaceful as a lake, and its shores are of exquisite 
beauty. Coming into the Canadian cities there came the 
realization of the fact that we were in a foreign land, 
and at this time a land involved, though so far away, 
in the European War. And from then on until the 
return to our own country, there w^ere evidences, in the 
guarded bridges and the presence of soldiers, of the far- 
reaching influences of the awful conflict. But the 
"world was ours," and through the parks, among the 
giant trees, and the streets of commercial enterprise 
we were taken, and then, at the strange hour of 16: 45, 
for so do they measure time in this foreign land, the 
faces of the Pilgrims were turned at last towards home. 

It would take a book, rather than the mere postscript 
to these sketches, to tell of the next few days amid the 
wonders of the Canadian Rockies. One thrilling sur- 
prise follows after another, with no perceptible interval 
between, as the train rises from the sea level up into the 
awe-inspiring heights where one feels like a midget 
among the Titans who might have been homed among 
those majestic peaks and glittering glaciers. 

Out of the confusion of abundance of scenic marvels 
there rise a few names about which centers the memory 
of any who pass through this region. It was Sunday in 
Glacier, surrounded by towering peaks among which 
strolling parties wandered through the afternoon, and it 
was not only fitting, but quite inevitable, that there 
should be suggested a service in the evening, which was 
held in the parlor of the hotel, the Rev. ]\Ir. Ayres speak- 
ing for our people. Another illustration of how closely 
we adhered to our purpose to make this a religious pil- 



THE JOURNEY I DID NOT TAKE 



123 



griraage; while having all the joys of an everyday ex- 
cursion it was enriched by a distinctly religious purpose, 
and our people were true to the purpose. 

Lake Louise and Banff afforded our pilgrims an op- 
portunity to really get out, through horseback trails and 
in conveyances and on foot, into the very life of the 
Lake Among the Clouds, and the real glaciers, and all 




PORTLAND, OREGON, CHURL il AMj i'ASTOR 

the glories of the Canadian National Park. It was here 
that the Great Divide was crossed, and the plunge down 
and across the long plains took the train again across 
the border into the States, and then, just to renew the 
sense of home, the people of our churches in Minneapolis 
received us with gracious courtesy, and sent us on to- 
wards the rising' sun, and our homes, with hearts full 
of happiness. 

And all the while this group of pilgrims was enjoying 
the marvels of the North, another group had been seeing 
other, and, they insist, greater wonders, of our own Na- 



124 A CALIFORNIA PILGRIMAGE 

tional Yellowstone Park, where days were spent amid the 
strange freaks and beauties of nature, and yet another 
group was exploring the Colorado Rockies, and carry- 
ing out the spirit of the Pilgrimage by holding services 
in our churches in Colorado Springs and Denver. 

So ends the story for those who read, but for those who 
lived it it will never end, and for our Church it marks 
an era, when we found ourselves, — discovered our possi- 
bilities, and swung open the doors to a larger future. 



THE END 



